The Price of Leadership

I've put this pic up before, but it seems fitting for this entry today.

A notable speaker from America has come and preached about how 2005 was a year of switching hands, of how angels have been talking about the people of God, of how our experiences in life reveal to us our destiny that God has preordaind for us to live out.

A post from a friend's blog:

"The higher one goes up the leadership leader, the more one sees and the greater the view becomes. Along with it, comes more dilemmas, contradictions, and difficult decisions to make. Knowing what the leader knows, he has to make unpopular decisions with the faith that it is for the good of the people. He relinquishes his rights to always be able to explain his decisions. He gives up the place to be always understood and symphatized. He finds fewer people around him now who truly appreciates him for what he does.

Ask me again and I will tell you what the price of leadership is. It is loneliness."

Unless a leader has peers to whom he or she can relate to (and thus silence the gap between those he or she follows and those he or she is being followed by), my friend's last statement above strikes true ever so clearly...

It's interesting that our pastor recently said that most of the psalms of David are psalms of lamentations...I've always known that although no one I've met seems to acknowledge it. till now at least. Leaders who act as if they have it all together and are like "super-power never weak" - stay clear of 'em, I say. I once was told that men shouldn't cry. Dude...King David's bed was tears many nights. Don't tell me that foolishness!

It's even more interesting that quotes like the ones below have found special nooks in my heart that have kept my engine running long after the gas has run out. Having lived and worked in so many different churches and jobs where, if not explicitly than implicitly, I have been humbled to take on a role of responsibility (sometimes before any type of foundation of relationship is built with people which, IMHO, isn't wise), I have found the following quotes to be quite true of one in a leadership role. Take heed, friends. Take heed not for fear, but for reality's sake...



It is a luxury to be understood.

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Life is rarely exactly as we would like it to be.
Instead, life is exactly as it is.

All persons are puzzles until at last we find in some word or act the key to the man, to the woman; straightway all their past words and actions lie in light before us.
- Emerson, Journals (1842)

When your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt. - Henry J. Kaiser

Do not do to others what angers you if done to you by others.
- Socrates

We all wage battles, yet the sound of the fight, in all of its glory and heartbreak, often echoes no farther than that space between our temples. -MD

People can be divided into three groups:
1. Those who make things happen.
2. Those who watch things happen.
3. Those that wonder what happened.

Bear Bryant, a famous football coach said, “If
anything goes bad, I did it. If anything
goes semi-good, then we did it. If anything
goes real good, they did it.”

Think, when you are enraged at anyone, what would probably become your sentiments should he die during the dispute. – Shenstone

His soul will never starve for exploits or excitements who is wise enough to be made a fool of. To be “taken in” everywhere is to see the inside to everything. –Chesterton

People who feel themselves to be exiles in this world are mightily inclined to believe themselves citizens of another. –Santayana

Man is a gregarious animal, and much more so in his mind than in his body. He may like to go alone for a walk, but he hates to stand alone in his opinions. –Santayana



Ahhh...but what is the hope of the leader? What is the joy of he or she who at times may have their good evil spoken of? What is the peace of he or she who has not the luxury of being able to explain themselves to those whom they love dearly? What is the victory that overcomes the price of having to make hard decisions? What is the satisfaction of he or she who obeys the Lord their God in spite of it seeming like foolishess to those following?

Is it not Jesus, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising its shame? (Hebrews 12:2) Is it not Jesus, who gave us His peace that passes all understanding, not coming from this world? (John 14:27 / Philippians 4:7) Is it not Jesus, who has overcome this world and death itself? (John 16:33) Is it not Jesus, who is the portion for those who make Him alone their refuge in the storms of life? (Psalm 73:26)

I used to watch this show in America called the director's chair or something like that. They would have famous actors or directors come to this acting school and on stage a man would ask them questions about their life and other things. Totally no script and BAM live. The last question this guy would always ask was about when they reach heaven. There was an actor who once said something that has stuck with me ever since.

Q: "When you reach the pearly gates, what do you want God to say to you?"

A: "(your name here), I understand."