out on a limb

So today I’m starting a new series of blogs on things I’ve discovered that I want to share.

They are things that have impressed, inspired or compelled me.

Todays blog is about the amazing movement called nightlight.

I’m not sure if you know, that trafficking in human beings is now the third-largest moneymaking venture in the world, after illegal weapons and drugs. In fact, the United Nations estimates that the trade nets organized crime more than $12 billion a year.Up to 2 million women and children are estimated to be victimized while being trafficked. The porn industry is also propped up in emerging nations by trafficked women. It’s hard to believe, but slavery still very much exists. And in most parts of the world, slaves are now used as soldiers, or as sex objects.

In the midst of all this, many people are trying to rescue the women and children trapped in sex-slavery. My friends at nightlight have been engaged in a rescue process for a while now. Unfortunately one of the heart-breaking realities they’ve had to face time and time again is that even when rescued, sometimes the pull of slavery is so strong, they return for the money and predictability it provides them.

The Nightlight gang have launched a scheme that sets sex-slaves free, and sets them up for a new way of life. When they escape, or choose to leave, they are set up with all the help they need, and also taught how to make jewellery. The nightlight gang then sell the jewellery to desperate housewives in Beverly Hills and in Orange County.

Charity, the woman who was instrumental in Nightlight coming together is one of the most amazing people you could hope to meet. Check out night light…Amazing stories, incredible people, worthy cause.

You can find a link to nightlight on the right of this page.

I love movies

Making them.
Watching them.
Critiquing them.
I love everything about the whole process of story telling on celluloid. I come to learn that most great stories have three main characters: a victim, a villain and a hero.

We have the Villain tying someone to train tracks, ushering pain into the lives of others …the victim is totally helpless, overwhelmed by circumstance or tragedy…and the hero steps in, to challenge the villain and set the victim free…

My favorite movies all have heroes that resonated with me: William Wallace in Braveheart, Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, Batman from the Dark Knight, Mr Darcy from Pride & Prejudice, Edward from Twilight, and of course Harry from Harry Potter. These great hero movies also have incredible villains, and the story is driven by the tension between the hero and the villain.

Without the villain, there can be no hero…
So, in Harry Potter we have Voldemort, in Pride & Prejudice we have George Wickham, in Star Wars we have Darth Vader and in Twilight we have James. The remarkable thing about our favorite movies is that heroes and villains both start out as victims.
Harry Potter and Voldemort are both talented orphans.
Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader both started out with the same mentor.
Edward and James are both Vampires who want to feast on Bella.
What separates the villains & heroes is not their circumstances; it’s how they respond to them.

Painful circumstances twist the villain, creating a monster of bitterness and jealousy. The hero however, refuses to submit to circumstances, and instead lives a life of purpose; despite often sharing the same painful circumstances as a villain, they refuse to be twisted by their pain and weakness.

The victim remains in a state of paralysis, unable to live life to the full because of their circumstances; likewise, the greatness of our heroes comes not from their talent (which we all possess, by the way). It comes from their refusal to remain a victim…their choice to do something, despite the circumstances. It’s their choices that inform how their talents (or super-powers) play out.

In all honesty, most of would like to be heroes; to live the life of our dreams. Our lives are telling a story.
However, sometimes its easier to lose yourself in the story of another hero, as it helps you forget the sad realities of your own life. Maybe we love our heroes because if we’re honest, we all feel like a victim at times. Crap things happen to us; around us; in us. Sometimes we even become villains, hurting people we love because, we can’t seem to cope any other way.
I’m reminded each time I watch a great movie that we all get the option to write the story of our own life - villain, victim or hero.
What kind of story are your choices creating?

A friend of mine is currently managing an accommodation centre in a remote Australian Community. He keeps finding that many of the residents have crazy backgrounds or neglect, abuse, depression, addiction…and just about any other sign of brokeness you can list or imagine. Most of these people are trapped by the choices they made, or that others made for them. They can’t do basic things that many of us take for granted, like cook, save money, read and write, or develop healthy relationships. The concept of pursuing their dreams, and uncovering their passions is so far beyond their current reality that most of them would dismiss it.

So a few of us are banding together to try and help, and we’re creating a new project to try and help some of these people get free of the past and create a different future. We’ve learnt over time that the best way to deal with brokeness is to begin to live a generative life, where you give yourself away; as counter-intuitive as it seems when you’re paralyzed by your wounds or circumstances, the way to freedom to is to find wholeness in what you can give, not what you receive. All it takes is to become the type of person who gives just a little more than they take; like 51%….hence project 51.

Our hope is that through mentoring, action-reflection, and tailored learning and serving projects, we can help some of these people move beyond the trauma and devastation of life…and live something they could call life to the full. We hope to partner with a few groups to help them get a foot in the door of the property game at the same time, so that when they graduate, they have an actual investment working on their behalf.

Stay tuned for more details…Oh, and sorry to those of you who’ve left comments in the last few posts…

I totally appreciate it that you read, let alone that you contribute to the conversation. I’m trying to figure out how to get the comments in the right place, rather than on random posts where they seem to be appearing of late. But in the mean time, know that I appreciate your insight and reflections!
Russ  

I’m still recovering from my first experience of Soul Survivor last week. What an incredible time it was, I feel like I know why they call it “soul”

There was a spirit about the conference that felt deeply refreshing; an authenticity and sense of community that permeated the leadership; a desire not just to sing but to get out of the four walls and serve. It was refreshing to see a lack of hype. To see people serve and lead and gather as friends. To see space for the voice of God to be heard, understood and obeyed. 

I had a chance to share 3 workshops, and I was so impressed with the people that turned up. We had a packed room for the conversation on character, the least sexy of all topics. we had great conversations about needing innovators and leaders to take the movement of Jesus forward. I met a young guy, only 14 years old, who has started his own group to help people learn to overcome their challenges by rock climbing. I met another group who have their own circus ministry; yes thats right, circus, they teach people to ride uni-cycles and do flips and all kinds of other mad things. I was highly impressed with the soul team, who seemed like a big bunch of family getting together, and served passionately for 5 days straight.

I guess I always wonder at big events like these what outsiders think and feel as they experience them. In some ways I kind of feel like an outsider in the church at the moment, primarily because I’ve spent so much time in a different context, and everything in the Australian Church seems familiar but different, like a movie where the story is the same but all the actors are different. When the songs get sung, when they see the ministry times and people start shaking & whaling, or when the messages are spoken…what do outsiders think?

I remember a mentor of mine saying that after visiting churches in Australia, he felt like there was a rally or club mentality present; because when 80% of the population doesnt go to Church, Sunday is really the only time you’ll interact with people who think and act like you. Church becomes more about affirming your own beliefs in the face of opposition that it does about living by faith, acting with love and speaking out hope. I though that was a very interesting observation to make. I guess that statement has me wondering, how much of what we do in the Australian Church is just for us, because we’re a cultural minority? The songs we sing, the sermons we hear, the jokes we tell; how much of it is to help us feel a little less like exiles on Monday morning?

Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything here on vox.

Life has been full, with two great people celebrating a wedding, lot’s of challenges in work, a global credit crunch to deal with that seems to be hitting harder each day. We’ve had fun visitors from out of town, which of course leads to great adventures, and Easter came and went for another year.

Easter is such an interesting time of year, and in Australia its such a brilliant holiday, with work ending on Thursday afternoon and not starting again until Tuesday morning. In many ways I kind of feel like I’m living Easter Saturday right now; in the scriptures, this was the day between the death of Jesus, and his appearance after rising from the dead. It would have been an incredible crazy time, as people who had bet their lives on following Jesus wondered what to do, and what had happened. It was a time of confusion, of reflection and dispersion as everyone went back to life the way it was.

I know that for many people the current reality is one of pain, trouble and struggle. Of wondering what has happened, and what to do next. I must admit sometimes thats exactly how I feel. I have a picture on my phone; it’s of the homeless on Skid Row, lining up for food. It reminds me that even on my toughest days, things aren’t as bad as I’d like to make them, and that any trials I go through are always relative.

I’m also reminded that the life of Jesus was a magnetic one, filled with compassion, hope, wisdom and generosity. That life is much more well-lived when it’s filled with the ingredients that marked his own life. I’m reminded by his death too that some things really are worth living for, and giving your life too.

I know for many people, Easter has been a time they loathe - religious types force everyone to stay home, judgement gets preached on TV, radio and even facebook. I guess this video sums up a little of what some people feel about Easter…that its all about a book. It’s an incredible short a friend pointed me too, I hope you enjoy it, even if it doesn’t represent exactly what you think and feel. Till next time… 

So last night, we got some free tickets to see Australia vs Uzbekistan at the Olympic Stadium; it was a 2010 World Cup Qualifier, and it was an amazing game.

The Uzbeks are a pretty highly rated team in this part of the world, and the contest was pretty level until Josh Kennedy popped one in over the heads of the Uzbeks in the 66th minute. Harry Kewell then finished the job with a penalty, and the win means that Australia only need to draw one more game, with 3 remaining to qualify for South Africa 2010.

Its totally possible that we could be the first team to qualify…which is cool in and of itself, but astounding when you consider the history of our national soccer team. We have only ever qualified for two world cups, and going into the 2006 event, we hadn’t ever won a game or even scored a goal in a finals campaign. Australia used to be the laughing stock of soccer, and our qualification path was terrible, nearly always coming down to a sudden death play off with a south american team.

But now that we compete in the Asian league, we have a round-robin tournament to compete in and the sudden death playoffs against nations like Argentina and Iran are over. We’re defying history…and creating a new future. The Australian Soccer team is now rivaling the Wallabies for the number 1 team, and most Aussies believe we can go further than the round of 16 next year.

Which is a good reminder to me that the future doesn’t have to be determined by the past; change is not only possible, it can be astounding. The theme for the last world cup was “stuff history!”Not a bad little motto…

I don’t know about you, but i’ve always had an internal pull towards living a life that matters for something; a life that’s meaningful, that is remembered or that leaves a mark on other people.

A life that at it’s end, could be considered brilliant in some way. 

It’s no surprise to me that one of my gallup strengths is called “significance” and is all about living a life that stands out, that matters and that contributes to the human story in some way. I’ve always been pulled towards roles and projects that will affect people and leave a mark on lives. A number of changes and transitions in the last year has left me really considering what the next of life will look like, and what it will take to live out of brilliance.

I’ve also been thinking a lot about what could hinder me from stepping into a brilliant life. Sometimes it’s tragedy that sets brilliance back, causes it to be frozen or buried. Life just hits you hard and you do all that can to hang on and just survive; certainly thats the reality for the majority living in the developing world. Brilliance gives way to survival, which is a totally acceptable alternative. Sometimes, it’s not tragedy but the fear of it that keeps you from brilliance. Concern over what others will think, or weighing the consequences of the sacrifice and courage it might take you to do what you’re set on.

In previous generations, brilliance was restricted to the connections you had, or the influentials who could champion your brilliance, or to the pedigree you were born into. Brilliance was sometimes discovered in an individual from tough circumstance, but more often than not it was a matter of lineage. Some families were great, and by simply being part of them brilliance was yours. One of the things I love about the age we live in is that brilliance is more accesable and achievable than it ever has been. With a global community that is more connected that it has ever been, we can now market our brilliance online, in our own way. Here is a clip from someone beginning to live out brilliance; I hope you enjoy, especially since 10 years ago, we might never have seen it

I think the ultimate enemy of brilliance is being average. Going through the motions, living a life that is bent by circumstance, or confined by the boundaries of others opinions or just surrendered to the gravity of paying bills and maintaining an existence. Because it’s easier, takes less courage and maybe involves less pain.

I’m in the midst of few projects right now which I hope will lead to brilliance; launching my consulting business to help people uncover their own brilliance; opening a cafe/bar with my brothers, to provide a space in the city for people to gather and celebrate; and pioneering a new spiritual community, that provides a place for people to journey in faith, hope and love. The risk of failure for each of them is quite high. But, I can’t sit on the sidelines and let someone else write my future. Hopefully brilliance is not too far off…

Last night was one of the most incredible nights…we went and saw Coldplay here in Sydney, and they didn’t disappoint.

I must admit, I feared I’d missed out on the best of coldplay; it seemed they hit a rough patch when they recorded X&Y, and I felt they were on a downward trajectory. I missed seeing them after they toured a rush of blood to the head, and I just assumed they were destined to fade into mediocrity.

Then my room mate bought me a copy of Viva La Vida; what an album. They re-discovered music, used incredible orchestrations and inviting choruses that could be belted out by even the most tone-deaf music lover. You could say that after listening to their new album non-stop for a few weeks, I had expectations of a good show; and they were more than met.

Coldplay delivered all that you could ask of any band. They played two sets in the middle of the crowd on makeshift stages, including one up in the rafters of acer arena, which is no mean feat. Some bands rely on the strength of their songs to carry the show, but they took care of details too…coldplay created theatrics for all their songs, with inflatable balloons, confetti, video clips, japanese umbrellas and globe screens that doubled as mood lighting. Thats not taking away from their songs…they seem to take on extra power and resonance when played live. Yellow shifted from a moody piece that can drag, into an upbeat sing-along. Fix You somehow became amazing. And the regular hits sounded hot.

Oh, and they are all brilliant musicians. The drummer sings just as well as Chris Martin, while playing drums; oh and he also plays guitar. Christ Martin is not just a mad frontman; he is also a brilliant pianist. Put simply, coldplay were incredible. They took nothing for granted, and gave more than was expected. You can’t ask for much more. 

In a few days time, I’ll be hosting an event here in Sydney called Imagine.

Its a one day experience designed to help people uncover their own brilliance, and begin to imagine what their life could like if it was built and informed by their own talents and potential. We use proven tools in transformation and development, and help people define a course for re-working their life around what they are great at.

You can check out this video my Marcus Buckingham to get a glimpse:

Imagine is the culmination of a few different experiences I’ve been through over the last few years; one was my experiences at Mosaics Protege Program, and the International Mentoring Network. Both of these communities pushed me to build my life and future on what I was good at, drawn to and passionate about. I’ve seen the difference a life built on talent & passion makes, and I want to help others discover what life is like when it’s lived this way.

To that end, I’ve launched my own small business here in Sydney, walkabout consulting. We work with business, non-profits, churches and anyone else to help people discover their uniqueness & passions, then begin to contribute their greatest talents to their organization. It’s been an amazing journey so far, and I’m looking forward to seeing where it takes me.

I’ve also been journeying about birthing a new spiritual community here in Sydney; one that unleashes dreams, executes justice, extends a sense of belonging and infuses hope. Imagine is one aspect of what this community is about. If you’re interested, or know someone who might be, check out the imagine page here 

What a week its been; I can’t remember a time where so many extraordinary events have coalesced like they have these past seven days.

I’ll admit I’ve been among the skeptics who wondered if the Australian Cricket Team were just being paranoid by not touring Pakistan in the past ten years; they have after all won on every other countries home grounds, and perhaps avoiding Pakistan gave them a way to defend their unblemished record. However after the cowardly, calculated attacks on the Sri Lanka Cricket Team, I can’t help but conceed they may be right. There are still so many unanswered questions, but it beggars belief that the Sri Lankan team, of all nations would be a target of such a ruthless attack. I appreciate the thinking behind terrorist attacks is for a small group if disenfranchised people to disempower a mighty nation with ruthless, calculated and random events. However I don’t see how in anyones wildest dreams, that Sri Lanka could fit that description.

It didn’t take long for things to become much more personal. It was just a simple email from a friend, saying that a long-term relationship was over. There was hurt, regret and pain, but it seemed like the right choice. Then more news came.
One person was not doing so well and had been rushed home.
While no one was watching, a bottle of pills was consumed because it had been decided that life was no longer worth living.
Thankfully help arrived quickly…but there is only so much you can do for someone who wants to leave.

While no-one was on duty for the briefest of moments, reckless abandon took over again. Fleeing the hospital, and running as hard as possible, they launched off a nearby pedestrian motorway, and broke almost every bone possible to break.

Thankfully hope and healing are emerging each day, and recovery of the body is slowly taking place…recovery of the heart might take some more time.

I’ve been trying to understand what it must be like to reach such a point of desperation, where the best solution seems to embrace the end. How powerful the emotions and anguish must have felt the best solution seems to be physical suffering. Or maybe the physical was just a way of expressing the emotional.

I’m glad for hospitals, hope and healing…

Then last night we had dinner with a family friend who has for several decades been working in muslim nations trying to build churches and help humans connect with God. he casually mentioned that he has a $20,000 bounty on his head…and that he is disgusted by how little they think he is worth.

Here is one group, who think death is the best way of being heard…another who is looking to death to silence what they hear…and another who is making so much noise, that others will use death to silence him.

a week in the life…but no ordinary week.