Known as a Dad

He was a very accomplished individual. A partner with a private equity firm, former CEO of a public company, and a CPA. He was very active in multiple boards and was on the Board of Regents of Pepperdine University. Yet I just knew Mark Kirk as Allie Kirk's dad and he was a good one at that. My daughter Bethany and Allie are close friends having gone to school together at Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy. Mark passed into the presence of the Father this past week. It is fitting that the memorial service is on Father's Day because that was really Mark's major accomplishment. As a business guy, I want to be successful and make my mark in the world. However, that pales by comparison to my primary role on this earth as husband and father.

I remember going to pick up Bethany at the Kirk house (usually after some sleepover) and seeing how Mark interacted with his kids. By every account, he was a great father. I also have an image of passing Mark and his wife Robin on my way to work simply holding hands while walking in Hudson. It is interesting that while I did not know Mark very well, I knew him well enough; yet did not realize how accomplished he really was until reading his obituary. I knew him simply as Allie's Dad. But then that really is the highest calling.

The other thing I knew about Mark Kirk was that he had a relationship with Jesus Christ. That, he openly stated and that he lived. So it is comforting to know that he has passed out of this life but is in the presence of his Lord and Saviour. He had a relationship with his "Abba Father", the intimate word the Scriptures use for Daddy. On Father's Day we celebrate that he is united with his Daddy. Dad is the ultimate accomplishment.

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Leadership Cleveland Class of 2013

I must admit that I was initially very intimidated.  I was accepted into the Leadership Cleveland Class of 2013 a year ago.  What I knew about LC was that it was a great experience and lifelong relationships were formed.  Once I found out who was in this year's class, I was even more intimidated.  Executive of Cleveland City Schools, Executive Director of United Way, Chief Admin Officer for Westfield Group, Chief Operating Officer at Sherwin Williams were some of the people in this year's class.  What I found out is that they intentionally put a variety of people from different areas such as corporate, non-profits, education, government, and small business (e.g. me).  There were 69 of us and we were the 35th class for LC. 

They put us together for a retreat right away in August and that broke the ice very quickly.   You get to know people pretty quickly when you are on their team for tug-of-war.  We were the Green Team.  Each month then we would have sessions focusing on a particular theme.  For example, Education, Quality of Life, and Economic Development.  I learned a lot about our city.  Yes, it has issues, but it is truly a great city and there is a lot going on right now.  I am also particularly proud that our classmate, Eric Gordon is leading a renaissance for Cleveland Schools.  Eric is a humble guy who has a passion for these kids.

Our end of year retreat was a visit to Nashville.  We learned about an up and coming city, but I think it also made us realize that we have similar assets here in Cleveland.  I am particularly proud to live in this great city and region.  But I think that the best part of Leadership Cleveland was the friendships that I built, friendships that will extend well beyond our class year.  Our class has adopted a mission of lakefront development and revitalization of the downtown corridor.  We also will continue to support the plan for Cleveland schools.

P.S. The picture above was by Hidden Moments (wife Debbie's photo biz).

Broken Spokes

Yesterday, I took my bike into the bike store. I had two broken spokes on the rear wheel. The young man who was obviously much more knowledgeable on bikes than I am asked me how long I had been riding on the broken spokes. I said "much of last year on the one and a few weeks on the second one". He kind of grimaced and said "Oh, that is not good". I asked him why. He said that when a spoke goes, the rest of the wheel takes the added pressure of the damaged spoke so that you could very much damage the wheel if you continue to ride the bike. Point taken, my damaged spoke was inflicting stress on the rest of the wheel and now the potential damage is much greater.

How much my broken spoke reminds me of the effect my sin has. My sin may seem like just a little broken spoke, but it has the potential to damage me, my relationship with God, my relationship with my wife, my co-workers, etc. Yes, we all sin, but the cavalier attitude we have towards sin is like my cavalier attitude towards my broken spoke. I did put duct tape on the spoke after all. We need to take a hard-line towards sin and deal with it right away as I should have done with my broken spokes. If we don't, we have the potential to inflict damage to the wheel.

 

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