The Opportunity Door

I'm in a LA this weekend, Memorial Day weekend. The powers that be, that is, the non-earthly powers that express themselves from time to time through my boss, Brian, opened a door of opportunity for me.

I'm in LA to meet with a new key author our company has just struck a relationship with, Marcus Buckingham. He's an immense guy. The story board of his life is fantastic, following the seemingly insignificant turns and twists of any given life. He moved from England where he went to Oxford--so, definitely not the dullest knife in the drawer--to join a polling and analysis group based out of Nebraska. Talk about following your gut. Would you trade London for Lincoln?

Doors opened for him as a result of his decisions (or, one could conjecture, just waiting for his decisions) and now he's a best-selling author with a message to change the world to boot. (Ps, I don't mean "boot" to indicate the trunk of a car.)

In my own small way, this weekend is a door opening for me, a chance to use my skills in publishing to speak into the life-changing work we partner with our authors to accomplish. Marcus and I will meet tomorrow, briefly, to talk about his next book and chat about ways to hit the market where the greatest clamber is chorusing for a life built on strengths that creates passion and purpose. In the grand scheme of things, his message is a big deal. Not a way to make money or stroke egos but a life-honoring reorientation of a more powerful way to live. Don't you want to join the cause already? I see my hour-long meeting as a door ajar to move forward in my own contribution to our world in need of hope and direction.

The following day, tomorrow, I'll connect with another author, Donald Miller, to do something similar but totally different. I am attending a weekend retreat he's leading that I believe has something to do with a core message he's developed over the previous year or two. And that is, the power of story. The overarching premise of his thought is that everyday folks can apply the proven mechanics of story--the things that Sophocles, Aristotle, Shakespeare, and Stein developed and perfected--to an individual life in such a way that will compose more meaningful living. As Don is brilliant at doing, it's a message where you say, "Well, yeah. Duh." But you could've never thought of it on your own nor expressed it quite the way he does, with vulnerability, insight, humour, and power.

And that's what gifted authors do. They tell you the the belief you've always believed but could never articulate. And this honor is mine: I get to help them, these gifted authors, articulate. This weekend, the open door is one of meaningful arm-hooking with Marcus and Don to find the most powerful articulation of the realities they help others to see. It's amazing to be among such great company charged with such a task.

Each of us comes to a door of opportunity. This door does not lead to a realm of receiving but one of giving. Great communicators with life-changing messages exert their lives giving. And those playing supporting roles--like myself and my colleagues--get to give to them while they give to the world. It's a great economy, this ceaseless giving. And like any act of charity, God designs giving to feel more like receiving where you physically have less but spiritually and relationally have more.

When you come to your door, whether it's Willy-Wonka- or Sistine-Chapel-sized, give everything you can. Both God and the world recognize the goodness of giving ceaselessly and selflessly, unconditionally, powerfully for the benefit of others with no expectation of tangible return except the immeasurable joy and an overwhelming sense of meaning that awaits.