This Is How It Should Be...

(NOTE: I wanted everyone to know that I'm not slacking on the blog...I'm currently in a condensed college writing class that is pretty challenging and very time consuming!)

Today I'm going to share an excerpt of an email that was sent to my daughter from the head of the organization where my daughter is completing her internship. Thanks to everyone who is supporting her while she is there. I'm very grateful that she has been able to be under the influence of this level of spiritual DNA! My comments will follow:

Thank you for praying for me while I was at Harvard Business School ... I wanted to give you a quick update on what happened. The gathering was a group of 90 leaders from major universities all over America on how leaders develop. A number of people made presentations on their theory of leadership development and then participants were allowed to comment.

During my opportunity to share I, of course, started with the self discovery of a person’s need for God. No matter what you look like on the outside, until this point you don’t even begin to become whole so you can be a leader. I showed the “I want the Cross” video clip... a just shared what happens in (our organization).

Once I was done presenting, there was glaring silence; I’m not sure they knew how to categorize what I said. Please note there were Muslims, Hindus and atheists in the room. These were some of the brightest people in America believing they can live their life without God. One of the organizers, also a Harvard professor, erupted saying, “I don’t know, I was viscerally impacted and offended by what I just experienced. While I was sitting here offended and mad, wondering why we even invited Ron to come to this conference, I am asking myself, ‘Why am I so offended?’"

Another professor jumped in saying, “Yeah, just before Ron we just saw a presentation about recruiting young people for the Barrack Obama Campaign and I was not emotionally impacted at all even through we are talking about a man who could, with the push of a button, blow up the whole world. Yet I too was offended and emotionally impacted by this last presentation.” Thus began a spirited conversation on why we would have a faith presentation in a discussion on leadership, the variety of religions in the room, and how taboo it was to even talk about religion at Harvard.

As others were making their presentation over the next 2 days, multiple references were made to that moment after I presented. Later on, the first Hindu professor came to a speaker table set up for discussion purposes and came with a number of questions. One of which was, “If we just removed the faith layer, wouldn’t everything that you do still work?” It was evident he was wrestling with his own faith and what he really believed. We tried to communicate to him that we don’t try to coerce anybody but instead of removing faith we present them with the claims of Christ, then encourage them to wrestle with those claims until the issues are settled in their heart. We also made it clear that in our opinion you cannot remove the faith layer as it is core to all we believe good leadership rests on.

As a result, (we) had a number of great conversations, starting some great friendships with people from universities all over America . We believe these interactions will lead to many of them ultimately choosing to follow Christ. When I asked one of my former professors who invited me to speak if he thought he would get fired for having me come, he said, “No. As a matter of fact, we have needed to talk about these things for a long time at Harvard. This will probably end up being the highlight of the two day conference.”

In retrospect, it did feel like I was thrown into a pit of lions for a few minutes. I was reminded of how important it is not just for us to speak the message but for us to be there, discuss, live, and embody the message. What they hear along with all the other conversations they see in our lives make the difference.


I love this man. He didn't go in there trying to get into a debate or berate anyone or anything like that. He went in and shared, with passion, the truth. Intellectuals are possibly the hardest people to affect because they are so analytical and oftentimes discount the emotional, seemingly irrational experience as a weakness. These guys were some of the greatest intellectuals in our nation!



What they experienced was the power of the Holy Spirit, making alive the truth. It was the power of God, through the 'foolishness of preaching' that affected these men and women. Not flowery words and not the wisdom or intellect of men. Not the charisma of a man, either.



This is how it should be. One man embraced a God-opportunity and penetrated the fortress of higher education. He is the Lord of Education, and He loves these men and women passionately. He loves our nation passionately, too, and wants desperately to see her turn back to Him. God bless America! God have mercy on America!



You and I may never be invited to speak to this level of leadership in our nation. But God gives us opportunities in our everyday lives to have this same level of influence in the arena where He has placed us. We can see them if we look. If we don't see them, then its because we are not in tune enough with Him to notice. That is just the truth.



God, help us to be in tune with Your voice and be willing to respond when You speak. Give us a passion for You that eclipses our passion for our own selves. It's not that You don't want to move in our nation. It's more of a case of us not being willing and ready to allow You to move us. I want to do better.



This is how it should be...