Building Sandcastles
One of the biggest benefits about living in the state of Washington has to be the ability to enjoy the diverse outdoor experience. Whether it is the beauty of our majestic Mt. Rainier and the Cascade Mountains or the many miles of sandy beaches, there is plenty to see and enjoy. Other than kiting, one of the common family summer coastal past times is building sandcastles. Besides needing a bit of an artistic flare and an architectural imagination a person building a sandcastle needs good moist sand and a few basic tools. The basic steps are quite simple. With moist sand the first need is to pack the sand in small lifts to the height of their design. Once the mound is packed tightly the process is carving the castle. This is best done working from the top down and shaving away thin layers of sand so you can maintain control of the carving process. The rest is up to the builder’s imagination and the rising of the tide.
Dr. Simon Walker a British researcher and author[1] specializes in the area of steering cognition, the study of how our brains gravitate toward certain stimulus and not paying attention to others. It focuses on the mental processes that help us make sense of the world around us.[2] In his leadership trilogy The Undefended Leader, he explores multiple aspects and applications of leadership, as well as, unfolds his theory on human ecology.[3] In book one, Leading out of Who You Are: Discover the Secret of Undefended Leadership he looks at the many foundation fundamentals of being a leader. In book two, Leading with Nothing to Lose: Training the Exercise of Power he delves into the exploration of the power of leadership.[4] Book three, Leading with Everything to Give: Lessons from the Success and Failure of Western Capitalism he looks at the impact of a leaders action on others and how things are interrelated on a global cultural level.[5]
In Leading with Everything to Give Walker states “Western Society has systematically undermined its own social, moral and economic foundations over the last century.”[6] He then unfolds the foundational importance society brings through providing stability, creating limits and allowing freedom. For him the weakening of western societies tipping point pivots around the Oxford debate between Wilberforce and Huxley over Darwin’s Evolutionary theory which was viewed as an attack on the Christian views of creationism. The result of the debate was the separation of science from the foundations of religious faith. Scientific thought was viewed as a better way to understand the world than Christianity. Though Walker openly sides with Huxley he did see the results of the debate as the dismantling of the churches creditability opening the door for morality to be viewed apart from the church. Individual freedom is removed from religious moral foundations and is now limited only by the limits of technology.[7]
The sad part about building sandcastles is they just don’t last. Everyone knows that in the end it is an act of futility that cannot be preserved. Yet we build them anyway! To Walker the undermining of society has created a form of psychological fragility. Without a solid societal foundation, we are building a sandcastle and trying to protect it from the onslaught of the oceans rising tide.[8] Sooner or later it will collapse. If Walker is correct in his assessments where does the credibility of the church stand today? Has post-modernism and the slow deconstruction of science trumps everything opened a door for the church to become more credible? I cannot help but wonder, over the past century how has the church participated in building sandcastles? What are we doing that can be systematically be dismantling our core foundations?
The Matrix movie trilogy depicts humanity enslaved to a society of machines in a computer-generated reality called the Matrix. The entire plot pivots on the idea that humanity will never be truly free as long as the matrix exists. The bottom-line issue is who is in control. The problem with control is “Control offers us an illusion of escape from the chaotic world we inhabit into a constructed reality in which there is order and predictability.”[9] Are we truly ever in total control of everything around us? Walker believes the primary purpose and task of a leader is not to control but to enable people to take responsibility for their lives, helping them to mature toward “responsible personhood.” Real leadership is embracing our “full humanity” and participating in the world around us by leading ourselves in every level of life.[10] In other words leadership starts at home. it starts with leading ourselves. Why is it that we try so hard to export what we ourselves have failed to import? What is it about judging someone buy a standard we ourselves don’t adhere to that make us feel better about ourselves? Maybe the idea of control is just another form of building sandcastles!
[1] Dr. Walker, DProf, MTh, MA Oxon, BTh, MBsPS, APECS has more letters behind his name than the English alphabet.
[2] https://steeringcognition.org/description.
[3] https://simonwalker.com/biography/4587805186
[4] Simon P. Walker, The Undefended Leader: Leading with Nothing to Lose, (Carlisle, Piquant Editions Ltd, 2007) loc 70, Kindle
[5] Simon P. Walker, The Undefended Leader: Leading with Everything to Give, (Carlisle, Piquant Editions Ltd, 2009) loc 96, Kindle
[6] Walker, Leading with Everything to Give, loc.183, Kindle
[7] Walker, Leading with Everything to Give, loc. 261-279, Kindle
[8] Walker, Leading with Everything to Give, loc 454, Kindle
[9] Simon P. Walker, The Undefended Leader: Leading out of Who You Are, (Carlisle, Piquant Editions Ltd, 2007), loc 178, Kindle
[10] Walker, Leading out Who You Are, loc 2641-2651, Kindle
About the Author
Greg Reich
Entrepreneur, Visiting Adjunct Professor, Arm Chair Theologian, Leadership/Life Coach, husband, father and grandfather. Jesus follower, part time preacher! Handy man, wood carver, carpenter and master of none. Outdoor enthusiast, fly fisherman, hunter and all around gun nut.6 responses to “Building Sandcastles”
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Greg,
John 15 comes to mind as I read your words. Jesus says that we are to abide, or remain, in Him, and apart from Him, we can do nothing. Sadly, we actually can do many things apart from Jesus. Heck, even mega-churches can be built apart from Jesus. But to what end? Will they simply fall as the waves crash on the shore line? There is no eternal value and little glimpses of the eternal in that which we construct on our own. In your extensive leadership experience, what markers do you look for when discerning if leadership is building a “sandcastle” vs something created in and through abiding in Christ?
“specializes in the area of steering cognition, the study of how our brains gravitate toward certain stimulus and not paying attention to others.”
I just read a book entitled did my neurons make me do it? https://www.amazon.com/Neurons-Make-Philosophical-Neurobiological-Responsibility/dp/0199568235
Greg, in many of our conversations in London and Oxford I always marveled as you talked about your experiences leading the various businesses you’ve started and the churches you’ve pastored at/volunteered at. As you’ve led these different businesses, how have you worked to empower your employees? How has your methodology of doing so evolved over your life?
Dylan,
Wow tough questions! Part of my journey of understanding leadership was during a trying time of rebellion as a teen and my unwillingness to submit to any form of authority. I was told by one of my older brothers who was wise beyond his teen years that one could never have authority unless they learned to submit to authority. This started me on the path of trying to understand what it truly meant to be a follower, knowing until I learned to follow I would never learn to lead. To me empowerment is helping people get wins under their belts so they can build confidence and skill. I have not always done it right and have done more harm than good in some cases. I think a pivot point for me was realizing that a lot can get done if no one cares who gets the credit. Since that time I have lived by the principle that if I encourage others to stand on my shoulders they can exceed beyond me as well as beyond where either one of us could have aspired apart from one another.
I always thought part of the fun of sandcastles was in knocking them down! Is there an aspect of life today that has tricked us into thinking that everything must be preserved for all time? Certainly the church world is filled with activities and practices that may have made sense in prior generations, but now just are just done with no real thought. Have we made the weight of eternal matters so heavy that we can no longer appreciate something in the moment?
You first note cracks me up, Greg. Soap bubbles and sand castles – you’re taking the power of metaphor seriously. I’m glad you highlighted the third book, as I spent more time on the first two. I probably need to do some personal study, I find the basis for morality apart from theism very weak and even the best arguments leave me wanting. Do you have any insight or resource suggestions there?