Left of Bang

As a Professional Supervisor, “Left of Bang” is a term that I have recently taken on.  It comes from a book with the same title authored by Patrick Van Horne and Jason A. Riley. The book describes a training program given to the US Marines before deployment- particularly during Afghanistan.  The training can be applied to various life situations – which is to heighten situational awareness, human behaviour, posture, recognising what is out of place and basically trying to identify the enemy/threat before it explodes……. Right of bang is after the bomb goes off and there is usually much chaos and stress. 

Although the term and learning albeit is from a military context, I believe is relevant as followers of Jesus as we do life.  The Bible tells us in 1 Peter 5:8: “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” (NLT) We are in a spiritual war.

Keeping this term as part of my personal and professional vocabulary helps me to remain vigilant, keeping in step with the Holy Spirit trying to identify what “the enemy” might be trying to do and his exploits before things go boom! As a supervisor, this is so much about protecting the church, ministry, self and others who may find themselves unintentionally in the blast radius.

Ultimately, the idea of this curriculum from the authors of this book is to set a “baseline” in any environment, and then spot the “anomalies.”  This is what we generally do when we practice good situational awareness, even if we don’t spell it out as such.  The baseline is what is normal in the environment.  An anomaly is something that stands out. 

The authors give three questions to help you check surroundings, recognize anomalies, and make decisions faster.

• First, what is going on here?

• Second, what would cause someone/something to stand out and why?

• Third, what would I do about it?

Over the years and this includes myself, I have noticed that many leaders are reactive leaders. An event happens and we go into reactive mode. We rally the troops to fix it and try to motivate everyone to turn things around and “right the ship” so to speak.

But what if instead we could envisage the event was going to happen, by looking for clues and signals, and steered the ship out of the way? Staying left of bang would mean more fruit and calmer waters. Not always possible I know, but I am sure we would all like to avoid right of bang!

I truly believe that strong relationships are key. Relationships form the foundation of community, trust, love and influence as we partner in the Gospel. For example, when the “check engine” light comes on in your car. Do we get it fixed right away? Or wait a few months until whatever’s wrong starts to get really bad. (Or do we do regular maintenance so that annoying light never comes on?)

So many times, in our relationships we ignore the warning signs hoping the problem will just go away. Or heal itself. But too often it takes a devastating “bang” for any effort to be made to correct it. And for many relationships and sticky situations, by that time it’s very hard to restore……

Nothing good happens right of bang.

Friends, be watchful, be vigilant, be strong, be ready – I encourage you to refresh your heart and mind with the reading of Ephesians 6:10-20 – “The Whole Armour of God” and pray that you will be able to stay “Left of Bang”.