I want to introduce you today to a fresh new blog by Bill Shoemaker called THE HUB.  Bill is the Church Planting Director for the Great Lakes Regional Conference of the Churches of God, General Conference. His wit and insight are refreshing. - I encourage to visit his site. - STEVE

The Ouch Factor

10 Aug

Have you ever noticed how you can walk barefooted on pebbles intentionally and lower the ouch-factor to just the different sensations of pressure?  But if you are walking through grass barefooted and you step on a pebble, the ouch-factor takes over because it hurts like the dickens (whatever a dickens is -ha) and you hop around like a person on a pogo stick.  I read somewhere there is a scientific explanation for this phenomenon.  It has to do with preparing the mind for what the body is about to encounter.  It prevents the mind from over-reacting to the stimulus.

Well I was reading through several blogs the other day, grazing along barefooted, enjoying the green grass as I read.  I picked up some tender morsels from several writers.  Then I skipped over to Seth Godin’s grassy blog to graze my way through his field.  Wow!  I was just walking through his musings when I encountered the “OUCH-FACTOR”.  It was buried just below the surface waiting for me to step on it in my bare-feet.  I should have known better.  Seth is known for well-placed pebbles (maybe land mines is a better description) in gassy areas.  Needless to say, I stepped squarely on a hard surface that had no ‘give’ in it.  Therefore the ‘give’ had to be on my part.  I will share a portion of what caused my ‘ouch factor’ below:

“Innovation is often the act of taking something that worked over there and using it over here.  Your problem, whatever it might be, probably has a solution somewhere in the world. And your organization is probably stuck because they don’t know what to do, and more important, don’t have the guts to do it…  If you’re waiting for a proven case study, directly on point, you’re going to wait too long.  The skill, it seems, is having the desire and the guts to seek out examples by analogy instead of insisting on being a follower of someone with guts.”

Seth is big on innovation with guts.  Going to conferences and taking notes from successful people and copying them is not what he recommends.  But learn courage from them that you can step out and accomplish the very things God has called you to do.  You certainly can learn different principles and new ways to look at both old and new problems to bring about different results from what you are presently reaping.  And you certainly don’t have to re-invent the wheel.

Where and what have been your Ouch Factors lately?  Find someone to discuss them and have the guts to do something about it.

Bill