Flip Book Contents

I've mentioned the Saber recorders and the flipbooks that we carried with us on our trek quite a bit in recent posts. I thought I would take the time and dig up what we were actually sharing with people. The company Global Recordings Network (which I mentioned in a post before we left) developed the material to be translated into languages around the world. The series we presented can be seen here: http://globalrecordings.net/en/script/en/395. It's entitled the Good News and summarizes the story of the Bible, pointing the way to Jesus through the whole thing. I'd encourage you to read it; easy to do in one sitting and I think one of the best summaries I've ever read of how the awesome creator of the universe loves us and wants us to be with him.. The text in the left column was the audio people listened to and the pictures on the right made up the pages of the flipbook.

The Servant, by James C. Hunter

I first wrote this abstract/review of the book The Servant for my Construction Practice class this semester. As a future engineer and a leader in the mission of the Gospel I learned a lot from Hunter's message. Our class defined leadership as "the art of influencing human behavior" which is more a learned skill than it is a gift you are born with. Leaders' lives are highly relational and I feel if you can be a servant in all your relationships then you will be very successful guiding people toward a common goal.

In The Servant, James C. Hunter recalls a turning point in his life where he discovered a new way of leading his employees while a manager at a glass making plant. He argues the essence of leadership is found in relationships, both how they are built and how they are maintained. Respect is a powerful commodity and is only given by others not taken by force. It is only by investing in those being led that rewards can really be reaped in a company or organization.

Hunter defines leadership as “the skill of influencing people to work enthusiastically toward goals identified as being for the common good” (Hunter, 28). A leader may accomplish tasks by making others conform to their will just because of their position of power. However, to gain the enthusiasm of those being led, a person's leadership must come from authority rather than their seat of importance. The necessary authority isn't easy to gain. In order to build it, a leader must earn the respect and trust of those they lead. It is important to note that the author's definition refers to the common good. When someone influences another to get what they want it is called manipulation. Everyone in an organization is there because they believe in the same purpose: pleasing the client by providing a service or product. Yet the the attitudes of the leadership in an organization can hinder that purpose.

The leadership model developed in the book demands a paradigm shift: the old attitude of running a business acts like a “top-down” approach with the clients or customers at the bottom. Hunter claims this attitude won't work since the employees are constantly looking upward out of fear from those in supervisory positions, taking their attention away from those with whom the company wishes to do business. When this is turned upside-down, the attention of the supervisors and CEOs becomes focused upon serving the employees they supervise; everyone is looking “upward” and working toward the1 common goal of providing a high quality product or service.

The new paradigm emphasizes the need for leaders to serve those they lead, providing for their needs as best they can. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs emphasizes that fact that human behavior is driven by need, whether it's for food and shelter, companionship, or self-esteem. Relationally, a leader can serve their employees by developing “relational bank accounts” that are never overdrawn. The author borrows this metaphor from the book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People where deposits are made during positive interactions such as being trustworthy or a good listener but withdrawals are made during negative interactions like breaking promises or acting arrogantly. If a leader shows they can be level headed, respect their employees, and not hold onto lingering resentment it creates the proper environment for success. Everything boils down to the relationships one has with their coworkers or those they lead.

Hunter spends quite a bit of time defining the word love and how it fits into leadership. It is described as a word of action and behavior rather than feelings and emotion. Love means putting others' needs before your own. Some concrete examples of how to show love are being “fully present” when listening to someone (Hunter, 105), not being late or otherwise disrespecting others' time, and “treating people like they are important...because they are important” (114). This must be done even when a leader doesn't feel like it or doesn't even care for the individual person. Serving and loving others while in a leadership position is important enough to allow leaders to behave positively toward their staff until that behavior changes the way they feel about them, a process referred to as praxis (149).

Hunter recognizes that being this type of leader will demand a lot of time and effort. However, the rewards far outweigh any potential difficulties. By leading as a servant, meeting the needs of others, and making regular deposits in relational bank accounts, a leader can build influence with those who are being led, resulting in further progress toward a united goal. Having a mission or purpose like that is a reward in and of itself; a vision can begin to define who we are and give excitement to life. Finally, when someone is able to give up being self-centered the author claims they are able to find true joy: “inner satisfaction and the conviction of knowing that you are truly aligned with the deep and unchanging principles of life” (Hunter, 178-79).

Leading as a servant can be very hard work: it takes a lot of effort to be purposeful about the relationships we have with those we are leading, putting their needs above our own, and investing our time and effort into ensuring they have the best work environment possible. Yet everyone has a choice of how they will live their life and how they will lead others. I would recommend to any aspiring leader that they should follow James Hunter's advice and lead as a servant. After all, some of the oldest and greatest advice ever given was to love your neighbor as yourself, sage advice for anyone, leaders and followers alike.  

Born to Run

Numerous times I have told friends that I would never consider running a marathon. It's not that I don't enjoy running, I just didn't see wanting to put in the time to run enough to finish a 26.2 mile race. I thought it would take too much away from climbing, biking, or other activities that I love to do more. Then I read the book Born to Run by Christopher McDougall, and now I want to run an Ultra!

The book follows the development of a race held in the remote, rugged mountains of Copper Canyon in North Central Mexico on trails used by the Tarahumara people. The Tarahumara are the "Running People," living and breathing for churning their legs over rocky earth. This race brings together top Ultra runners from the U.S. with the locals, and even though the story gets excited when it looks like all the work is going to fall apart, the showdown goes down.


Intertwined throughout this story are side-notes about the running community, in a sense explaining why we were "born to run". There are sections on nutrition/diet, the trend of barefoot running, a great story about the Leadville 100, and a whole treatise on why humans have evolved to run. McDougall goes so far as to say that running is a "silver bullet" to treat the health problems rampant in the States: obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, etc. But over all of this is a theme of enjoyment while running. The secret of great Ultra runners like the Tarahumara or Scott Jurek is they run because they love to run. McDougall describes a look of joy on their faces.

Images used from Runner's World.com

I think that's what I've been missing. Many of my friends run and I can see an incredible cross over into other sports that I do as well as being a great way to cover a lot of ground efficiently. The whole "light and fast" attitude is becoming more and more appealing. The desire to run is now there, I just have to find the joy. I think my problem in the past has been doing all my running on roads and in neighborhoods. It makes it really convenient, but I need to get out and run some trails enjoying the mountains that I love to be in anyway.

Influence of Christian Fiction

I had the privilege in college of being exposed to some great christian authors. Many were textual analysis of the Bible, others historical accounts, and some were commentary on certain passages. The books and authors that have had the most influence on my life have been fictional. It isn't so much as understanding how to live as a Christian but understanding who God is. I find that I have a very vivid imagination especially when reading good writing. Being able to picture God or visualize heaven helps me to get a better feel for the nature of the Creator.

Here's a brief list of books, read not just in college, that have been particularly influential:

Perelandra, C.S. Lewis  A great retelling of the temptation of Adam and Eve in the setting of a new planet, I feel like it has one of the best descriptions of how sin works on us. Near the very end Lewis also paints an amazing picture of the intertwining nature of God with the rest of the universe and humankind.

The Shack, William P. Young  An amazing glimpse at the subtleties of the Trinity, Young crafts an incredible journey of a man grieving after the murder of his daughter. I don't exactly know if everything is "biblical" per se, but I feel as though I understand the interaction of the Godhead better. It also helped dissolved my allusions of God as a being with sex or gender: he is a spiritual entity that is neither male nor female but has traits of both.

Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien  The book taken as a whole might be more of a "faery tale" in the words of Tolkien himself, but the opening chapter is a great portrayal of the creation of the world and how sin entered into it. The Creator creates a symphony of sorts, composing the music and creating what we know as the world today. A Satan figure causes dischord, but this itself is woven into the sound of universe.

Narnia Books, C.S. Lewis  These children's novels are fantastic and contain much of Lewis's theology. The content isn't very deep, being intended for a younger audience, but the message is just as powerful. Highlights of the series:
      Magician's Nephew: Another picture of the creation of the world and how sin entered it. Interesting to me is how Lewis, like Tolkien, also uses music in his creation. They were friends after all.
      The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: A story mirroring the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.
      The Last Battle: The end of the book is a great image of the end of times and judgement day. It's in this book that Lewis describes earth as the "Shadowlands": merely a glimpse of what will come to us in heaven, if we travel "further up and further in."

Leaf by Niggle, J.R.R. Tolkien  Thought to be somewhat autobiographical, Tolkien writes about a poet's journey from life through death and on to heaven. He compares our life here on earth with how it might be after death.

The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis  Another perspective on Heaven and Hell and how we get there. Since I like to climb, his description of heaven as a far off mountain range that we travel to and climb hits home to me.

The Edge of Never

"...as a skier I know that taking control requires moving toward the thing you most fear. On very steep terrain, everything in your being screams, Back off! Get away from the edge! But you learn to ignore those voices and move toward the emptiness because if you lean away from the void and into the slope, your ski bases tilt and you lose your edge--the only thing holding you to the hill. Lose your edge at the wrong moment, and it could be the last thing you ever do. Control comes from squaring your shoulders, reaching out and planting your pole down the hill, and moving with complete conviction toward the abyss. It's a thrilling, counterintuitive, high-stakes dance, and it's become my one enduring faith."

William "Bill" Kerig's The Edge of Never was to me a retrospective look at the extreme ski industry. He tries to tackle tough questions in his own life; questions that are important for anyone who has fun in the mountains to ask themselves. Why do we ski? What is the limit to which I can push myself?

The book chronicles Kerig's pursuit to make a ski documentary that will answer these questions to a wider audience. The thread that will hold it all together is a father-son story of Kye Peterson and his father Trevor. Trevor was killed in an avalanche in Chamounix. Kye has become one of the rising stars in the Canadian ski circuit and Kerig wants to take the 15 year old kid to Cham and film him retracing his dad's footprints or, more appropriately, his ski tracks. Through the mentorship of Anselme Baud, author of the Chamounix skiing "bible", Kye learns to ski the steeps becoming a man in the eyes of the filmmakers and guides. He becomes himself, gaining an identity separate from his father's. The kid ultimately skis the Exit Couloir where Trevor was killed, putting a finality on his graduation into the ranks of elite skiers like Glen Plake and Mike Hattrup.

Kerig questions himself the entire book on his role as a film director and the responsibility he has over the lives of the skiers he is wanting to shoot. He skied professionally and so understands the other side of the story. Skiers (and anyone for that matter) act differently and do things they wouldn't normally do while being filmed. Is this fair to put people's lives at risk in attempts of making a ski movie? He ends the narrative describing a day skiing with his family. You have to find a balance, he says, between acceptable risk and responsibility. It's up to each one to find where they are comfortable, but they should at least confront the question at some point in their lives. For me, I'm definitely on the conservative side, but I'm still trying to find that balance. It helps by finding authors like Kerig and Steve House who are willing to tackle some of the same questions that I struggle with.

"There are no guarantees. This is a lesson that the mountains teach. Humility and gratitude are the benefits of such an education and may be the best reasons for sharing this life with others. I think Anselme was right. It's beautiful, sometimes, and anyway, the mountains are here. We must take the best of the mountains and follow life."

Note: If you have seen the movie Steep, which Kerig co-produced, you may be asking why you never saw any of this story in the footage. That's because a tragic accident during the filming causes a lid to be put on the project, and ultimate control of the film in another director's hands. You'll have to read the book to find out what happens, or watch the film of the same title which was finally made recently. I for one am now hungry to see the footage that the book talked about so in depth.

Beyond the Mountain

I just finished reading 'Beyond the Mountain' by Steve House, currently the premier mountaineer in the world. About a month ago, my Dad and I were fortunate enough to attend a presentation by House at the Lodge at Whitefish Lake. He was in the Flathead Valley to update his Wilderness First Responder training for his job as a mountain guide. It's quite an epic story actually: House was leading a pitch on Mount Temple in British Colombia when a rock broke under his ice tool causing him to fall 80 feet, pulling all his gear in transit. He sustained several broken ribs, cracked his pelvis, collapsed one of his lungs, and messed up some vertebra. His summer plans of climbing came screeching to a halt and he was forced to think about guiding instead of doing his own adventures to pay the bills. Amazingly the accident was in March and we were watching him walk around and give a power point presentation in the middle of May. Talk about a fast recovery!

I was very impressed with both Steve's presentation and the book itself. The first time I had really been "introduced" to Steve House was a recent article he wrote for Climbing Magazine called Green Mountain Manifesto. In the article he is pretty demanding in his call for the climbing community to become more green specifically in their treatment of the mountains themselves. His biggest issue is with fixed ropes, particularly on Denali, and climbers leaving trash behind. It's a tall order to fill, and even House himself falls short and he seems to express that in the article.

The book is very introspective. It was written after House nearly killed himself and nearly destroyed a friendship attempting Nanga Parbat. He began to rethink why he climbs mountains; what he gains from attempting to reach the summit. The style is autobiographical and tells tails of past climbs, including a year studying abroad in Europe where he became hooked, on the road to becoming the best climber in the world. I can relate most to the incredible relationships he talks of building while trusting each other on the sides of immense peaks. Most of my closest friends are those that I have spent a lot of time tied to them with a climbing rope. All in all I would highly recommend 'Beyond the Mountain' to anyone seeking their own reasons for climbing, whether it be 10 ft boulders or 8000 m peaks.

Einstein on Race and Racism

I just finished reading a book by Fred Jerome and Rodger Taylor entitled Einstein on Race and Racism. It was a fantastic read that I would recommend to anyone. Everything that I've ever heard about Einstein has been about his career in physics: struggling in school, becoming a patent clerk, doing amazing physics "thought experiments" on the side, etc. You can't study modern era physics without mentioning Einstein's postulates or E=mc^2 or theories of relativity. The subject of this book, however, seeks to open people's eyes to another side of the brilliant scientist.

As a Jew in Nazi-era Germany, Einstein knew well the harsh realities of racism. Thus when he came to Princeton in 1933 he immediately felt a connection to the black community in a town well known at that time for being socially segregated. He took walks in the streets holding the hands of young black school children, visited with his black neighbors, and otherwise treated them with kindness and respect. Jerome and Taylor do a wonderful job incorporating quotations from people who actually knew him during this period in his life. During the latter part of his life, Einstein became an active anti-racist, using his influence gained from being a renowned scientist to condemn racism on local, national, and international levels.