The Happiness of Pursuit



I just finished reading a pre-release copy of a new book that is releasing to the public today. Written by one of my blogger heros, Chris Guillebeau, the title is The Happiness of Pursuit. In the book, Chris chronicles, and gleans lessons from, a number of people pursuing (or having finished) quests, including Chris' pursuit of visiting every country in the world before the age of 35.

The book is filled with stories, in part because, as Chris discovers, explaining a quest, or how it feels to finish one, is very difficult. But the lesson here (and it is a valuable life lesson...one that I've found myself adopting gradually over the past decade or so as I try to explain to people just exactly what it is that I do) is that a quest changes you, and provides you with stories to tell.

One unfortunate byproduct of our increasingly plugged-in lives is that we consume stories rather than live them. And for the purposes of leadership, we are so consumed with creating our own stories, that we fail to recognize the wisdom that is imported both by the telling of, and the learning from each others' stories.

In essence that is what I've tried to do for years...be someone with experience who shares insight into music, ministry, worship, and/or leadership. But I'm just one of many, which is why I feel that part of my story is to point to others who also have insight, because everyone has a story, and we can all learn from it, especially if it involves a quest.

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