Gracenomics

It’s 9:26 pm on a Thursday night. I’m still at my full-time gig running samples on an instrument I have been trying to fix for two weeks. So, while the instrument is working I’m churning out the data. In the mean time I figured out how to sync my music to my new phone, the Droid X. I have never had an iPhone, but I doubt my mobile experience could be any better than it is right now even if the iPhone comes to Verizon.

Eminem is on the headphones asking, “Look, if you had one shot, one opportunity…To seize everything you ever wanted…Would you capture it, or just let it slip?”

What would you do?

In most circles of success we might think that everyone would respond, “Capture it!” In most leadership books or conferences I think the same message is presented. A few friends just got back from one of those Church Leadership conferences and when asked to text me a comment about the conference one of them typed, “We only have one shot, so what are we waiting for?” Sounds a lot like Eminem, doesn’t it?

I have been wondering a lot lately about how Eminem filters out through the Church.

I mean, we are supposed to be governed by Grace, which – at least to me – means Eminem’s question might become, “If you had a million shots, a billion opportunities…To seize the only thing, or One, you really wanted…Would you capture it, eventually, or not?”

It would make a terrible rap song, I know, I know, but hopefully the content of my message isn’t destroyed by the delivery.

Recently, I had the privilege of receiving an advanced copy of a book, by Mike Foster, to review before it goes public October 6th. To tell you the truth, I’m in the book. I mean I’m not, but my name is in there. I had forgotten that he ran a contest or something when POTSC.com launched and my name actually appears in the book as one of the thousands of People of the Second Chance.

The title of the book is Gracenomics. It’s not really your typical book for the Church, but it doesn’t make it any less valuable for the Church to read. Simply it helped me grapple with this question of how Eminem’s question gets transformed in the context of the Church, although he never actually mentions Eminem I’m sure Lose Yourself was playing at some point.

You can pick up a copy at Amazon.

In short the book proposes that grace can change the world. In the face of failure people can be given a second chance and that opportunity could turn into huge dividends. Foster points to multiple examples of how second chances have paid off. While the book is an easy read you will want to savor each chapter like a fine wine. It raises significant questions and pushes some interesting buttons when it comes to what we might be justified to do and what might be the best to do. It challenges the idea that we need to find someone to blame for failure, and instead we might need to expect it and even be concerned if there isn’t enough of it. It calls into question the gravity of “One shot” living, and asks that maybe the stronger and eventually more successful people are those who risk failure, fail, and learn to move on.

It’s worth the $9.00.