Believing in Cheating

I had an interesting experience last week.

Basically for you to understand it you need to know a few things.  It starts a few weeks ago when I was asked to sit on the leadership team for North Point Ministries.

To me, that was a very humbling, flattering, and exciting opportunity.

And so, for the last few weeks, on Tuesday mornings, I have prayed myself up and walked into a room full of very talented people to intimidate the FOOL out of me!

So…last week was supposed to be my fourth time in that meeting…BUT…the challenges of raising a young family had other plans!

For those of you who have multiple little ones…you know how this goes!

EARLY in the morning someone throws up…and then the chain reaction begins…until the sun rises on one exhausted momma.  (It’s not that I can’t help…it’s the fact that no one wants Daddy when they’re sick!)

But that wasn’t it.  As the morning came…so came the requirements of a new day.

And…as I looked at my wife…I could tell.  This was just one of those days that comes along every once in a while.  A day when my family needed me.

And I was faced with this decision.

Do I stay with my wife and family?…OR…Do I go to my fourth leadership team meeting?

Or…maybe a better way to put it…my choice was this.

Do I let down my wife and family?…OR…Do I let down the members of the Leadership Team and possibly look like a flake four weeks in?

Here’s the deal.

Even though I work in the church that is famous for the term “Choosing to Cheat“….

Even though, during my first month at work, my boss looked me in the eyes and told me to choose my family over him every time…

It was still a very hard decision to choose to stay home.

But I did.  I cheated on the Leadership Team!

And…then…the most amazing thing happened.

Over the next two days, as I ran into 2 high ranking members of that leadership team and they asked me where I was…So I told them.

And…they congratulated me on a good decision!

Here are a couple of observations about that whole experience.

• Choosing the Cheat is hard.  Especially when you really want to do the thing you’re skipping.  But it’s still the right thing to do.  This philosophy is more than an excuse to get me out of work I don’t really want to do.
• Choosing to Cheat may cost you your reputation.  I can’t control how people perceived my decision.  Being valiant is not always seen as that.
• Choosing to Cheat as a corporate value is a very fragile thing.  Those members of the leadership team could have easily brought it all down with one judgmental look.
• As a leader, If you believe in the concept of Choosing to Cheat, you need to make it a point to celebrate when someone chooses correctly…even if it’s your meeting they skip.

So, where are you in this whole thing?  Is Choosing to Cheat a nifty idea?

…idea you use to get out of things  you don’t want to do anyway?

…or a belief that goes beyond your reputation and pride?