Its been a handful of days now since I attended the Surviving Leadership Conference and still, there is a ton that I am processing from last week.  I have always been a note taker.  I think it all began in the second grade when my love for all things prehistoric prompted me to form The Dinosaur Club (Yes, it had members, maintained a level of exclusivity, and researched dinosaurs just as the name suggests…another blog, another time). So, I love to comb over notes from sermons, classes, conferences, even my personal journal (not someone else’s, that’s not cool) hoping to glean more from the initial experience with the clarity that hindsight affords.

Larry Osborne shared plenty of nuggets of leadership wisdom to scribble down, and I did, fervently.  But all week long I’ve been coming back to one simple phrase he said…

“God draws straight lines with crooked sticks.”

Again, in the context of building teams that stick together, teams that win, Larry was unpacking what he called the “Barnabas Factor.”  He pointed out the pivotal role that Barnabus played in the early church and how he serves as an excellent example of what a leader should look like.

One of the “Barnabus Factors” was pulled from Acts 15, “Focus on annointing, not pedigree.”  Paul lacked all credentials, and yet Barnabus gave him a platform.  “Even as valuable as education and tenure are, they must never trump annointing or you will miss God’s best,”  Larry said when talking about what kind of people to add to your team.  “God makes straight lines out of crooked sticks….stop looking for straight sticks.”

I’ve spent a lot of my life trying to be a straight stick, an indispensible linchpin, someone who surpasses expectations and earns affirmation from the people around me.  And I have definitely at times expected those around me to be straight sticks.  The reality is that God is the one who draws the straight lines, not me.  Anything good that comes from my efforts is the power of a God who can take my brokenness and my victories, my glaring mistakes and my strengths, and leverage them all for His Kingdom.  Not because He has to, but because He wants to…because He can.  Its a reminder that God hasn’t given up on me…He’s not done with me.  I may be a crooked stick, but He has a calling on my life, and I will trust Him to use me to draw His lines His way.

We are all a bunch of crooked sticks, but the story He writes of our lives, when we let Him, changes the world.