Seth Haines's Blog, page 24

A Non-Anxious Presence

Here is the thought I can’t seem to shake: we are a people aflutter, flitting from hate to hate, from conflagration to conflagration, from anxiety to anxiety. We are a people on fire–skin, heart, solar plexus, brain, everything. Is it any wonder? The world is on fire, and we take that fire by contact.

Twitter, Facebook, the local coffee shop, every small group at church, the conversation on aisle 6 at Kroger–everywhere I go, the people carry political anxiety. Russia, Paris, North Korea, Nort...

The Telepathic Man

Yesterday, an older gent said, “Young fella, you know you don’t have to save the world, right? Peace, peace, peace.”

I didn’t respond, but in the recesses of my noggin, I said, “older fella, thank you. How did you know I needed to hear that?”

The older gent must’ve known my thoughts because he said to me (without moving his mouth), “young fella, I’ve been a young fella before, too. It’s the trying to save the world that put this crook in my back and this cane in my hand. Peace, peace, peace.”...

My Priestess

It’s a season of unexpected motion, of movement. Amber, my wife of nearly 18 years, has reached the end of a sort of wrestling down her identity, or maybe it’s just the beginning. She’s been my girl, my beauty, my prophetess for all these years. She’s been the thing that’s brought me to salvation again and again, even in the bleakest seasons. What is a lover but a type and shadow of divine love? Lover–I could use this could be a sort of holistic nomenclature, but is this who she is?

She’s be...

The Wedding of Weddings

There are things you hear at every Christian wedding:  the two shall become one flesh; what God has joined let no man put asunder; Christ will come for his bride.

The coming of Christ for the bride–this is a cosmic wonder. See him, the groom, waiting for the woman in white, composed of all of us, saints and sinners alike. See the witnesses, the stars and moon, the sister planets, the grasses of the field standing at attention. “Here it comes,” they whisper, “the end of all that groaning.” Hea...

Cultivating Contentment

Life has loops. Recurring dreams. Déjà vu. The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon.(1) The record player needle hits the dust spot and skips back a second; it happens again and again and again. Loops, loops, and more loops—this is the way of conversation for me these days.

In the last two weeks, I’ve had a recurring conversation, a conversation on repeat. I’ve had this looped conversation with a businessmen, a housewife, a part-time spiritual director, and a few folks on social media, and each time, it...

7 Leadership Principles Guaranteed to Ruin Your Career but Save Your Soul

This week, I shared the story of a friend–a decent, hard-working, upstanding friend of faith–who’s asking the hard questions of vocation.

Why is integrating vocation and faith so difficult? 

How do you ‘maximize profit’ while staying true to the message of scripture? 

How can I give everything to The Company and feel good about the scraps of time I throw to my children, my wife? 

What about time for prayer, for spiritual connection and formation?

The Market, though, refuses to answer these qu...

The Only Leadership Principle You Need

Thought leader.

Business leader.

Leadership principles.

Leader, leader, leader.

Leaders—we’re eaten up with them, maybe even obsessed.

This morning I sat in the local coffee shop and spoke with a fella I know to be good-and-decent. He’s smart, competent, a hard worker. He’s a man of faith, too, and as we talked about life, church, and business, he shared his workday struggle.

Why was integrating vocation and faith so difficult?

How could you chase a buck and stay true to the message of scrip...

Killing John’s Ego (A Vocational Question)

Today, I’m continuing my series on vocation. For the previous posts, follow this link.

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This week, I’ve been wrestling with vocational irrelevance, with the freedom it could bring if it didn’t hurt my ego so much. As I’ve spilled no small amount of ink on the topic, I’ve been considering whether there might be some secret in the scriptures, some word on vocational irrelevance and the death of ego.  A person of the scriptures as I am (or would like to be), it seems appropriate to mine whateve...

Lying Under the Invisibility Cloak (A Vocational Question)

Relevance, validation, affirmation—if we’re honest, don’t most of us want these? If we’re honest, don’t most of us hope to find these in our careers, our vocations, our workplaces? The more pious might chime in here, might say, “I only seek relevance and validation in the eyes of The One,” and perhaps that’s true (for them). But my life-experience has taught me something about the things we say: so often we use our words like fresh paint (as if there’s no rust underneath) or reverse psycholog...

Bullets to the Bodies (A Vocational Question)

Yesterday, I wrote of my vocational transition, the ways in which I’m trading down–local vocational relevance for an increasing irrelevance. As an attorney, I cultivated the appearance of importance. I was a partner in the largest firm in the state. I worked on the right cases (sometimes), learned the right angles (a few acute and obtuse ones, too). I owned nice suits and power ties.

Then, I quit.

Now, I’ve adopted a new vocational persona–the pensive writer (let’s call a thing a thing) whose...