The origin of the thoughts I am about to write probably came from some things I heard at The 2009 Leadership Summit on Friday of this week. Specifically, one of the speakers, David Gergen, in an interview with Bill Hybells spoke words from his book Eyewitness to Power, wherein he tells of the experiences of working very closely with four different American presidents in the White House.
Gergen was asked what he thought was the greatness of each of the four presidents he served. For Nixon he said it was his strategic mind; for Ford he said it was his decency; for Reagan he said it was his hopeful/optimistic outlook; and for Clinton he said it was his resiliency.
Gergen was also asked what he thought was the weakness of each of the four presidents he served. For Nixon he said it was his demons and the dark side of his life; for Ford he said it was his naivete and the fact that he didn't fully understand that politics was a rough sport; for Reagan he said it was his occasional detachment from important details; and for Clinton he said it was his severe character flaws.
Wherever we are, each of us can have moments of greatness. Likewise, wherever we are, each of us will have areas of weakness.
In our human condition, we cannot completely escape areas of weakness. Gergen said that maturity in leadership was a matter of coming to grips with our flaws, and then making sure to put adequate protections in place against them.
Some people who exhibit greatness have been successful in doing this; many have not.
Fast forward to the somewhat heart-breaking news of yesterday regarding the Texas Rangers' superstar baseball player Josh Hamilton. A player whose talent and skills have aptly been described as greatness by many. You can find out more about it on the front page of the Sports Section in the Dallas Morning News today.
Apparently, for one night in January during Major League Baseball's spring training in Arizona, Hamilton willingly slipped back into some of his old lifestyle patterns that previously got him in trouble (involving alcohol and partying), and actual photos from that not-so-flattering brief episode in his life appeared on the internet this week fully exposing his weakness.
Even though he and others had put adequate protections in place to help him keep his areas of weakness in check, he chose to literally "drive right through the stop signs" and slip back into the dangers of his areas of weakness anyway. Now the whole world knows.
However, the model/example that Josh Hamilton displayed in handling this story with the news/sports media is perhaps the best part of his true greatness. He admitted his error. He didn't try to hide it. He declared that what he had done back in January was wrong and asked all those he hurt and/or disappointed by his actions for forgiveness. He openly acknowledged that he still has an area of weakness with alcohol. He admitted that when he lets himself get out from under the protections that are in place to help him with this area of weakness, he will fail.
So what? What's the message here? Well, for me there are several things.
- All of us can have moments of greatness; look for these opportunities to shine. Use the talents you have been given and don't waste them.
- All of us have areas of weakness. Those areas don't necessarily disqualify you from greatness, but you must acknowledge them and then seek to protect yourself from these areas. If you don't, they will totally wipe out any moments of greatness you may have had in the past or will have in the future.
- All of us need to openly admit failure when it happens and seek the forgiveness of those we've hurt/disappointed when our areas of weakness have overshadowed our moments of greatness.
One final word from David Gergen. Oh, if only we would hear what he has to say and apply it to our everyday lives in this country. He said that we need to be much more forgiving and less invasive in people's private lives. But, we need to be very demanding in their public lives.
Greatness and weakness. What are you going to do with the talents you have been given? What are you going to do to protect yourself from areas where you are weak?
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2 comments:
One of the challenges with weaknesses is they are often blind spots in our lives that we cannot see without help from other people. Much of the church has mistakenly replaced biblical love with unconditional affirmation and adopted a mentality that holding people accountable is "harsh" or "judgmental." This results in a lot of weakness that is swept under the rug and left as lumps in our lives. I thank God for friends who are bold enough to confront me about my weakness and love me enough to tell me the Truth, even when I don't want to hear it.
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