Leadership: Least Significant Value

Great leaders don’t become great from doing great things. Great leaders become great for doing the things of least significance. I didn’t say the least value but the least significance. There is a difference.

Here are a few examples I’ve heard or seen myself in my life. I’ve heard stories of military Generals cleaning the hospital floor and restocking supplies following a bloody battle. I’ve heard stories of military Generals walking the cemetery that hold the graves of many men and women they put there because the men and women in those graves were following their orders. I’ve heard of CEOs taking out the trash and restocking the rest rooms. I’ve seen restaurant owners washing dishes, wiping down tables, and taking out the trash. In the Bible, we have the story of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples. And this weekend I saw a pastor on their knees in the aisle praising God during worship.

To most people these acts have very little significant value but to great leaders the willingness to do the little things creates a base and a mindset for doing greater things later on. Great leaders are committed to the insignificant.

Christlike

The idea to be “Christlike” or “more Christlike” is a falacy of your own mind. Adam was a decendent of God formed in God’s image. Eve was formed from the rib of Adam as a helper. As a Christian you believe you are decendents of Adam and Eve therefore you are already as Christlike as you can be. It is your behavior alone that holds you back in your own mind that you aren’t Christlike.For it was by grace alone that you were saved from your own transgressions through God’s abundance of mercy and love. When you finally embrace the grace of God with your whole heart you will be at peace.

Faith and Doubt

The opposite of faith is doubt and without some doubt, faith wouldn’t be authentic. Some doubt if perfectly fine. It’s when you change the direction of life away from God is when doubt becomes an issue.

Just thinking…

One of the hardest things for me as being a Christian is living in a world where the people around you can't understand how you have faith in a God that can't be seen, quantified, or fit into the constraints of this world while living in a time where you will be shamed for loving someone so much that you would devote and give up your whole life for in hope to share your life in the grace and glory of Jesus Christ in victory of overcoming sin and the world.

Easter realization

Today I realized something…
So what stemmed this thought? Today at church a new friend came over and gave me a hug after the service. It was a glorious service today. Anyway, it wasn't just a hug. It felt different. It sparked something inside of me that made me realize something. I finally realized that something I've been looking for my whole life, something I've been praying for, I will never have on this earth. What I mean is I’ll never know what it feels like to have an earthly father’s love for his son. This may seem bad to you but it’s a great breakthrough for me. It means I’m letting go of things that are holding me back. I’ve struggled my whole life of 35 years with wondering what it felt like to have a father’s love for his son. Even as being a father now, I’ve made my mistakes. From the outside looking in, most people would probably say I haven’t been a good father. Especially to my son. What I’ve learned over the past few months is I’m not a bad father. I’m a father who didn’t have a father to model that example so I’m having to figure things out the hard way. By making mistakes and failing a lot.
I’m sure you are thinking, where is the breakthrough right! The breakthrough is that by letting go of the thought and trying to find the feeling of what a father’s love should feel like, I can focus my time and energy on accepting the love of God as my father filling the hole in my heart and let that joy and love overflow from my heart into my own family. I can let the Godly men I have become friends with be the example of being a loving father.
This thought then got me thinking what is going to happen with my kids and their kids. The absence of a father at one generation before the developing of the foundation can take place will ripple across multiple generations before the males in the family genealogy becomes aligned with children who've had a stable father the whole time. Sometimes a grandparent or someone else can step in and take on the role shortening the generations ripple affect but it all takes time. Something we all have a limited amount of.

The first time God spoke to me

It was a Sunday morning before church and my wife and I had just had a little argument about having money for this weeks tithes. My wife either doesn't understand how much this means to me or I haven't communicated it well enough but this week she told me she had spent the money on something else. As we are walking to the church we have some words back and forth and then I ask her if she locked the truck. She said "No".  We said a couple words about who was going to go back and I proceeded back to lock the truck. I bit my tongue and held my words in that I wanted to say since I'm trying to be a better husband. Low and behold, did I know that walk back to the truck would be life changing. As I'm walking and grumbling unloving words in my head about my wife, I hear the words "unconditional". It wasn't like someone whispered the word unconditional. It was if everything around me was gone and it was just God and I. I knew right away what he meant. I wanted to drop to my knees and start crying. What the lord meant was "Love your wife unconditionally". She is a good hearted woman and for that you need to love her even if you are mad about why or how she did something. He was right. I wasn't loving my wife unconditionally.

Keep in mind that I've never had this open line of communication with God like this. It was almost scary at first but he knew what to say that would put me back on track. You never know how or when God will speak to you.

Originally written in February 2014.