Have you experienced a teacher or professor who was brilliant in their subject, but didn’t seem to care about you as their student?
Have you encountered a doctor or nurse who seemed to be a genuinely caring person, but only average in their skills?
This is a common experience and can be true in anyone from a plumber to a therapist.
But when you find someone who is both competent and cares, that is an extremely valuable person.
The same is true for leaders.
Leaders need to be strong and make good decisions.
Leaders need to know and declare the vision.
Leaders need to demonstrate confidence and deliver hope.
But how does submission fit in?
We don’t talk about this topic very often.
I used to think a leader’s great challenge was submission, but I’ve changed my thinking.
Why is it so hard to say I’m sorry?
The quick answer is pride. But there has to be more to it.
It’s about “the principle!” How many times have I heard that? Or I’ve said it myself.
The principle of the matter is often in play, but underneath the principle, it can also be about the need to be right. It results in the lack of willingness to budge even for the greater good.
Apologizing isn’t that easy, and it’s not always clear about who should and when. But the lack of an apology is always harmful.
Be careful what you ask for.
We all know the punch line, right? “Because you might get it.”
But what if that’s not the real punch line?
What if the real answer is “Because you might not know what you are asking for?”
We know God wants success for us. The tension resides in the fact that we don’t always define success the same way God does.
We might think success is a big church in the burbs. God might think success is a small church in the country. Or what if God doesn’t connect success to numbers at all? What if God’s definition is more about character, trust, obedience, loving people, lifting His name and teaching the gospel?
God did promise new territory to Joshua. (Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Mediterranean Sea in the west.) That does sound like “numbers.”
But God also focused on the relationship Joshua had with Him.
7 “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. 8 Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Joshua 1:7-8
How you define success matters.
Dan Reiland is the Executive Pastor at 12Stone Church in Lawrenceville, Georgia. He previously partnered with John Maxwell for 20 years, first as Executive Pastor at Skyline Wesleyan Church in San Diego, then as Vice President of Leadership and Church Development at INJOY.
Recent Comments