Readings for today: Proverbs 21-24
What makes for good leadership? What’s the most important characteristic a good leader can cultivate? How should those of us who live under the authority of leaders, whether it be in the political or economic or educational or religious spheres, pray for them? How should we be interceding on their behalf before the Lord?
The most important quality of a good leader is humility. They are simply an instrument in God’s hands. They are a tool in God’s toolbox. As Proverbs 21:1 puts it in our reading today, “Good leadership is a channel of water controlled by God.” Just as a stream doesn’t chart it’s own course but follows the contours of the land, so we are not the captains of our own destinies nor are we the masters of our own fates. There is so much beyond our control. So much going on in the world that we have little influence over. So much going on beneath the surface of even our own bodies that remains a mystery.
How many leaders get drunk on power? How many leaders abuse their position and authority? How many leaders exploit their resources? Sure, there are the easily identified examples. People who break the law or do horrible things. Their names are legion. Madoff. Epstein. Weinstein. Zacharias. Driscoll. The religious leaders who sexually abuse women and children. But what about the examples that are far more subtle? The ones that fly under the radar? What about someone like me? I am a leader in my home. How do my wife and children experience my leadership? I am a leader in my church. How those I work with, and among, experience my leadership? I am a leader in my denomination. How do my colleagues experience my leadership? Would any of them say Doug’s leadership is a “channel of water controlled by God?” Would any of them characterize me as a humble leader? I hope so.
Humility is not thinking more highly of oneself than one ought, nor thinking less of oneself than one ought. It’s simply thinking of oneself less. This is what it means to submit in humility to God. To let Him control the “channels” of your life. To let Him guide and direct your steps. It means never promoting oneself. Never protecting oneself. Never serving oneself. It means being content to labor in obscurity. Embrace anonymity. And pursue insignificance. It means taking the lowest place at the Master’s table, letting Him raise you up in His time and according to His will. It means letting God “direct your life to whatever ends He chooses.”
Readings for tomorrow: 1 Kings 5-6, 2 Chronicles 2-3