Tuesday Trials Update

Had a great morning on the start end rotating lane to lane as the relief person for half the pool. It's really a lot of fun being right there as Lochte, Phelps, Grevers, Soni are getting ready for their races. Definitely felt a little small next to Grevers who stands something like 6'8"!

Spending the afternoon with my sister. It's a family affair for us around swimming. I'll add a great photo later of my sister, her husband and me.

I don't think I'll get much reading done this week, maybe an hour or two at best each day. Hopefully I'll have something to share from one of the two I'm working through.

It's really a privilege to be here this week. Very exciting atmosphere to be part of.

Tuesday Finals Position: Turn end in Lane 7

Monday Update (Part 2)

I got a text a bit earlier that Pastor Jeff is right in the thick of the action! He's at the start end in Lane 5. No doubt he's having an awesome time. Follow jrakerlive or check back here when he's able to catch a breath.


THANKS everyone for your texts. Glad I didn't trip on my way up to the edge of the pool! It was a great night, exciting races and I even look good in blue!


Tuesday morning I'm on the starter end again in a relief judge role. I will be providing 20 minutes of relief to each official in lanes 0 - 4.


I'm tired and off to bed. Lots more swimming to go.

Monday Update

It's Monday afternoon and I have time for a quick update. A very good morning. The warm-up pool was an excellent assignment! Great swimming this morning and some fantastic races on tap for tonight. No idea where I'll be assigned.


It'll be a good night of swimming.

The time is here....

Reconnecting with good friends, exploring new scenery and being in the midst of history are all coming together for me here in Omaha. Good friends from Cornerstone graciously opened their spare bedroom to me for the duration of Trials. Thanks, Tom & Christy. Of course, I'm a little worried that poor Elaina has now begun throwing up. That would not look good on national TV throwing up into the pool! Praying that doesn't happen.

Before I forget, my assignment in the morning for prelims is "the warm-up pool." Yes, they are stationing three of us in the warm-up pool for the morning. Apparently assignments will be different in the evening so I'll try to let you know. Regardless of where I am it's exciting to be here. The big screen in the warm-up pool area will keep us apprised of what's happening in the meet.

Tonight we went through some rehearsal for TV - where to walk - where to stand - complete with fire exploding from mechanisms on the side of the pool. We were 30 meters away and felt the heat! If there's a World or American record, watch out!

I bumped into Jamie Cahn, an official from the Baltimore area, at the airport so I offered to drop him at the hotel. I'm amazed at how God brings things together in "chance" meetings. Jamie is writing a book on management and leadership. We had really just a few moments to talk, sharing what I am reading and what he is writing. I offered to read it if he wants an opinion. We'll see.

I've added four books to my list. The first two were assigned by Coach Brenda (Sherpa Coaching):

1. The Next Level: What Insiders Know about Executive Success, Scott Eblin

2. What's Your Impact on Business: The Sherpa Guide to Business, Behavior & You, Brenda Corbett & Rubi Ho (no link on Amazon, but you could email Sherpa Coaching (see link to the right) for a copy.

3. 9 Things You Simply Must Do To Succeed in Love and Life, Henry Cloud (big surprise, another Cloud book!!)

4. The Unknown Battle of Midway, Alvin Kernan - I found this book on a list produced by the University Library association. I've always been a fan of WWII history and Midway is my favorite war movie. Mr. Kernan was on an aircraft carrier during the Battle so comes at it from a very interesting perspective and is able to give many details not told in the movie.

Olympic Trials

Tomorrow is reaching a goal, knocking one off the bucket list, in general a really exciting time for me. I'm off to Omaha and the Swimming Olympic Trials. Here's a photo of the first panel for the competition pool being set a few weeks ago.

To prepare I spent the morning with 6 - 10 year old swimmers at the Elks Country Club of Hamilton, OH. It was a fun meet. "Ah, the good ol' days of summer swimming."


I have no idea of the flow of each meet day in Omaha. I anticipate some down time during which I hope to work out (the Omaha YMCA's have been gracious to open their facilities to me after I contacted them), read and post on the blog. I'll try to post my position on deck each day on Twitter (jrakerlive) and here. As my children would recommend: "Look for the lights shining off his head!" Although in a perfect world, officials should not be seen on the Trials deck - at least not on TV.


We're all looking forward to seeing Lochte & Phelps square off but there will be many more fantastic races. I'm really looking forward to seeing how Missy Franklin does, the 16-year old phenom from Colorado. She's a great young lady.


All but the fastest heats of preliminaries will be webcast live at usaswimming.org June 25-July 1. The fastest 2-4 heats of preliminaries will be broadcast on tape delay by NBC Sports. See the schedule for further information. Olympic Trials TV Broadcast Schedule

Here are some links to the construction of the pools in Omaha:

Omaha News Report
2008 Time Lapse

In Touch with Reality

On Sunday I head to Omaha as an official for the 2012 Swimming Olympic Trials, the fastest swim meet in the world. The top 5 (or more) swimmers in the U.S. could place in the top 16 in the Olympics - but only 2 get to go in each event. It's a fast meet. Everything comes down to these 8 days of swimming.


There's a part of me that would like to deceive myself into saying: "I could do that." It happens when we watch athletes perform, from golf to swimming to volleyball. "I could do that." It happens to pastors when we look at leaders of larger congregations - "I could do that." Basically we're out of touch with reality if we take that too far. At this point in swimming, I know I can't do that - but part of my would like to believe I could. Just yesterday I swam a mile - 66 laps - 1650 yards (I know that's not quite a mile but it's what the swimming world calls a mile) and it felt good. That was the first part of warm-up for Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps. And they took 10% of the time I took to do it!


We watch leaders (at least I do) and think to ourselves, "I could do that." But can we really? Is that reality? In truth it's not. First of all, not everyone can lead the same number of people. Some are gifted to lead 100 - some 200 - some 500 and some 1000 or more. Unfortunately we place a value on leaders based on the number of people in their organization - at least many leaders do. But truth be told, the leader of 500 can't lead 1000, at least not in the same way.

Henry Cloud's book, Integrity, is about the 6 components of an integrated, mature character. One of those components is Being Oriented Toward Truth. Mature people are in touch with reality. He shared the story of a dog food company that had horrible results. After firing 3 or 4 marketing firms and still having the same results someone finally spoke up and said, "The dogs don't like it." Truth. Reality.


"One of my favorite sayings is, no matter how difficult it is to hear, Reality is always your friend. The reason is almost a truism: everything else is a fantasy. So, for us to get real results in the real world, we must be in touch with what is, not what we wish things were or think things should be or are led by others to believe they are. They only thing that is going to be real in the end is what is." (italics his, p. 106)




Here's what Cloud writes about people who are in touch with reality: (Chaper 8)

1. They seek out the truth about what is real. They keep updating information through active pursuit instead of waiting for it to knock on the door.
2. They have an observing ego. Mature people monitor themselves, they self-evaluate. They see themselves in truth, in reality.
3. They have neutralized truth. Mature leaders are able to look at the facts, the hard truths, and not be overwhelmed either by them or not make them overwhelming in the delivery of them to others. They can focus on the issues and problems apart from people.
4. They maintain a balance between judgment and emotions. Emotion doesn't cancel out thinking and thinking doesn't cancel out emotion. A mature character "has access to all of his thinking faculties, and the emotional state that he is in does not 'override.'" (p. 128)
5. They aren't split personalities, Jekyll & Hyde. Cloud describes this as what I would call black and white thinking. With a failure or a mistake it's all bad and in fact, I'm all bad. A mature character sees the whole picture not just the action, whether about themselves or another person.
6. They have the ability to assimilate and accomodate. Mature characters can bring in new information and make room for it. They are coachable, teachable, flexible and realize they don't yet know it all. When Kathryn married Brian we made room for him in our family and will continue to. We will assimilate and accomodate just as they will with us and Brian's family.

   This last one is huge for me. It's Q-TiP (Quit Taking it Personally). Changing strategies isn't personal, it's business. Adapting to the changing culture isn't personal, it's business. Churches and other organizations that are more married to methods and personal preferences than they are to adapting to the culture are not going to mature. They will stagnate and die. Church business isn't about personal preferences. It's about Kingdom results. Period.

   I'm not suggesting giving up core values and vision. I am suggesting that when it comes to assimilation and accomodation, churches are notorious for being behind the times and one of the most resistant organizations to change. Many are out of touch with reality.

   I have shifted leadership from the size church Cornerstone was in 2003 to today. But I am realizing that what needs to shift for the future vision to be realized is 10 times (or more) what has already been done. I've barely scratched the surface and am in danger of being out of touch with reality. I can't take it personally when I look at the changes that need to be made in me. It's not about me. It's about Jesus!

Where do you need to grow? In this list of 6 characteristics of people who are in touch with reality, where were you tripped up? Where are you stuck thinking about personal preferences while God is calling you to Kingdom principles?

Doing v Being

Yesterday after the Asbury Chapel Dr. Mulholland asked how the family was and I gave him a few tid-bits of joy and concern. His response was simple: "We'll be praying for you." I knew that's what he would say. It's what he's always said. It's the consistency of his character. And I know he will pray. He is genuine, consistent, dependable, human and imperfect but he has integrity.


The world loves people like him. The world needs people like him. People of integrity aren't out for themselves and you know it. They aren't blowing smoke. They are genuine. You know that they care. It's not about what they do but about who they are that speaks to our hearts. Integrity isn't about following a code of conduct. It's much deeper than that.


In his book Integrity: the courage the meet the demands of reality, (remember the link to www.abebooks.com for a used bookstore search engine. I found this book for $1. plus $3.50 shipping). Henry Cloud pulls together two terms that when I look at them now, of course they are related. I would have never gotten there! To have integrity means to have a integrated character as opposed to a divided life.


Integrity is a book about growth, having a character that is always growing, moving forward, adding value. It requires, Cloud surmises, an integrated character:

"the opposite of integration is compartmentalization. That means that a part of oneself can be operating without the benefit of other parts, and that spells trouble. You have known people who love, for example, without the benefit of judgment and reality testing. Or people who are creative, but without the benefit of being structured or organized. Or those who can be

proactive and take risks, but can't delay when they need to. They are impulsive.

Strengths turn into weaknesses without the other parts of a person to balance them out.

In fact, historically the word diabolical actually means  "to compartmentalize." Things go 'bad' when they are out of balance and integration. The person  of  'integrity' is a person of balanced integration of all that character affords."  (p. 36-37)

People of integrity can look at the numbers of a pet-project and make the necessary changes. They are married to results not the project. People of integrated character can have the difficult conversation with a direct report and stay separate from the emotion of the moment, keeping the issue the issue. It comes not from the skills you have or the things you do but from the core of who you are. Being v Doing.


The 6 character dimensions of Integrity are:

1. Establishing Trust
2. Oriented Toward Growth
3. Getting Results
4. Embracing the Negative
5. Oriented Toward Increase
6. Oriented Toward Transcendence

This book is going to take a lot of work to go back through. I'm probably going to type up the quotes and lists I've highlighted as my way of internalizing more of it. There's one topic that I really think I need to to some work on and I have this urge to blog about it but I'm not sure I want to. It's an area of failure that I've recognized - not total or complete but definitely not healthy. I'll write and maybe I'll post it but regardless it will be some productive work.


What kind of work do you need to do on your character? What would people say is consistent about your character? What would you like them to say? Where are the gaps that you recognize? What are the consistent patterns you see in the rear view mirror of your life, patterns that you don't like or aren't healthy? Do something. Talk with someone about it. Journal. Get into a small group. Read. Do something. Press on.


"Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. ¹³ Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:12-14)