How will you know you have the gift of ‘leadership’? Because you’ll know where God wants you to go, and be able to show others the value of going with you. There are many talented people who never become effective leaders. Why? Because they’re more interested in themselves than in those they lead. What’s interesting, however, is once they go through the school of hard knocks, they become sensitised to other people’s needs. But good leaders don’t wait for that to happen. They realise that ideas are a dime a dozen, but people who can implement them are priceless.
Legendary American football coach Bear Bryant used to say, ‘I’m just a plough-hand from Arkansas, but I’ve learned to hold a team together. How to lift some men up, how to calm others down, until finally they’ve got one heartbeat together. There are just three things I’d ever say: If something goes bad, I did it. If it goes semi-good, we did it. If anything goes really good, then you did it.’ When you have the gift of leadership, you’ll also be approachable. You won’t fly off the handle, you won’t let minor problems poison your outlook, and you’ll sandwich every slice of criticism between two layers of praise.
Robert Louis Stevenson said, ‘Keep your fears to yourself but share your courage with others.’ There are people who knock the heart out of you, and people who put it back in. Paul was such a leader: ‘Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God…for you have been my partners in spreading the Good News’ (Philippians 1:3,5 NLT). That’s the kind of leader you should aspire to be.
Jer 43-45, Titus 2
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