Edge of the World
My wife’s hometown is a dreamy little city in central Louisiana called Natchitoches (yes, I spelled that correctly). It’s a city that oozes with character from the large antebellum homes that line the streets to the Christmas festival that’s nationally known. If you haven’t been to Natchitoches during the Christmas season you won’t regret it once you’ve arrived. Cane River, that stretches the length of downtown and beyond, is illuminated in a continuous flow of incandescent splendor that would make Clark Griswold replete with envy. It’s truly a sight to behold!
The Rushes have set up camp in Louisiana amidst our current transition and it’s been great to experience my wife’s hometown for more than an extended weekend. With my parents being Natchitoches residents as well, it’s the perfect place to make a challenging time a positive experience.
Anyone who knows me well knows I nerd out on history and with Natchitoches being the oldest continual settlement in what would become the Louisiana Purchase, there’s plenty of history to take in. The city, first settled in 1714, has been a living classroom for the Rushes! It’s like field trip day in elementary school and I’m getting to take my wife and kids along!
Natchitoches was first settled as a French fort, officially named Fort Jean Baptiste de Natchitoches. It was the edge of the world being the furthermost outpost of French owned territory. It was a place of tremendous risk and reward. Native Americans loomed in the surrounding wilderness with a natural desire to protect the land, but there also existed the allure of an untapped economy in what would become known as the Red River, resource rich both inside and out its waters. A replica of the fort stands today giving witness to those persistent early adaptors that forged a way of life out of the lush, yet unharnessed terrain at the edge of the world.
As I learned about life in and around Fort Jean Baptiste, I was amazed by the resourcefulness of these early settlers. The techniques and methods for survival that gave rise out of necessity were great reminders that it’s scarcity that breeds creativity more than surplus. I was reminded that we look at constraints for excuses, but it’s often the very presence of constraints that fosters the new.
I don’t know much about life for those early settlers, but I guarantee strong leadership was present. Leadership isn’t about being the smartest person or the strongest; it’s about seeing opportunity where others see limitations. It’s true whether considering resources or people; choosing to focus on what is or what could be.
Any organization be it a church, business, or early settlement, rises and falls with leaders who turn constraints into creativity. Leaders that pull resources together, are willing to make mistakes, and persist pragmatically, when others lose hope. There seems to be a hunger and great opportunity for leadership of this variety.
I long to be a leader that sees beyond the constraints and perseveres to accomplish great things. A leader that sees opportunity and inspires others to what could be and what we could be. It won’t happen by focusing on excuses or the statues quo but seeing opportunity where others see constraint.
My mind is still pondering how a group of ragtag French settlers saw an overgrown thicket at the edge of the world, filled with every imaginable danger, as the perfect place to make a home. There efforts would eventually turn the settlement into a fort, a fort into a town, and a town into a city: all under the banner of Natchitoches.
2020 will be full of opportunity. We don’t have to question that. The crux lies in our willingness to see opportunity where others see limitations and the courage to inspire others along with us!