The Red Queen Effect
Before I share a thought here's a brief description of me. I'm a recovering perfectionist. I'm an ENFP which means in part that I have millions of ideas, but I have a tough time finishing what I start. It's tough for me to tie off the umbilical cord on anything. No matter how good a message is or how much I've worked on it, I'll keep fine tuning right up to the last minute. I can't not do it. I'm future-oriented. I have so many dreams and so many goals that I'm never satisfied. That is a blessing and a curse. I'm trying to crucify selfish ambition and vain conceit, but they keep resurrecting! I try to celebrate the past and enjoy the present, but my default setting is a future-orientation. And I often feel the acute frustration of not acheiving my goals in an expedited enough fashion.
When you combine all of that you get a snapshot of me emotionally. That's why this metaphor is so powerful to me.
I identify with Lewis Carroll's Red Queen in Through the Looking Glass. She is the one who runs so hard but never gets anywhere because everything else in the landscape is also running. She says to Alice, "It takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place."
It is the inflationary effect. If you're income stays the same you're losing money because of inflation. If you do nothing you'll fall behind. You have to work hard to stay where you are.
When you acheive a level of success you aren't satisfied with anything less--the baseline adjusts. Ask any athlete who's not at the top of their game anymore. Ask any CEO whose company isn't performing like it was last quarter.
So you may have thought you'd be satisfied pastoring a church of 1,000 people but once you're pastoring 1,000 people you experience the Red Queen Effect.
I think it's good and bad. We need some divine discontent. But we also need to learn to rest in who God is and what God has done for us!
When you combine all of that you get a snapshot of me emotionally. That's why this metaphor is so powerful to me.
I identify with Lewis Carroll's Red Queen in Through the Looking Glass. She is the one who runs so hard but never gets anywhere because everything else in the landscape is also running. She says to Alice, "It takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place."
It is the inflationary effect. If you're income stays the same you're losing money because of inflation. If you do nothing you'll fall behind. You have to work hard to stay where you are.
When you acheive a level of success you aren't satisfied with anything less--the baseline adjusts. Ask any athlete who's not at the top of their game anymore. Ask any CEO whose company isn't performing like it was last quarter.
So you may have thought you'd be satisfied pastoring a church of 1,000 people but once you're pastoring 1,000 people you experience the Red Queen Effect.
I think it's good and bad. We need some divine discontent. But we also need to learn to rest in who God is and what God has done for us!
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