Parker Palmer, in his book, Let Your Life Speak, writes of the importance of tending to the inner life,

"Go far enough on the inner journey, they all tell us – go past ego toward true self – and you end up not lost in narcissism but returning to the world, bearing more gracefully the responsibilities that come with being human."

I think this is a bit counter-intuitive.  It makes some sense that if we spend too much time going inward, we will almost certainly neglect or forget about the world – becoming amissional.  The reality should be just the opposite though.  We should actually be a better lover of people as we discover our “truer” self.

Palmer goes on to speak about how this relates to the discipline of leadership.  I find his thoughts charged with earthy wisdom.  He writes,

“Those of us who readily embrace leadership, especially public leadership, tend toward extroversion, which often means ignoring what is happening inside ourselves.  If we have any sort of inner life, we ‘compartmentalize’ it, walling it off from our public work.  This, of course, allows the shadow (he is speaking of something like a debilitating inner darkness) to grow unchecked until it emerges, larger than life, in the public realm, a problem we are well acquainted with in our own domestic politics.  Leaders need not only the technical skills to manage the external world but also the spiritual skills to journey inward toward the source of both shadow and light.” 

Honestly, I find myself almost unable to trust any public figure right now because of the series of inner lives exploding onto the news outlets with almost daily regularity, from sports figures (can you say Penn State?), to politicians, to leadership in the church.  My cynicism tells me that we will see more, much more failure because of the consuming temptation to be public without the paying attention to the inner journey.  However, the hopeful side…the Christian side of me longs for a richer, thicker community where this type of honest inner journey is not only longed for, but also normalized!

That’s all for now.