Tag: burned out with leading
The Joys of Leadership!
Scripture reading for January 24: Exodus 16-18
For some reason, I’ve been in leadership positions all my life! I’ve always felt inadequate and usually haven’t sought a leadership position; others always seemed to volunteer me. As I’ve worked leading in various secular and church positions, I’ve become acutely aware of my inability to please everyone. Moses soon learned this same truth! There are as many opinions as there are people under you and Moses had over a million “followers”!
In the passages of the last few days, God’s redeemed people were delivered from Egypt by a mighty act of power by the Lord, and then from Pharaoh’s pursuing army! Led by Miriam, Moses’ sister, they danced in joy and sang a song of deliverance! Redeemed people sometimes expect everything to be handed to them and that their lives will be some kind of fairy tale where they live happily ever after. This picture is soon in need of readjustment as troubles bring us to acknowledge our lack of faith.
A few days after the victory celebration, the Israelites faced hunger and began to grumble. They blamed Moses for his poor leadership and for bringing them out into the desert to die. (Exodus 16:3) God met their need! A little farther into the walk, they ran out of water and began to grumble again, quarreling with Moses. Their hearts were angry and hard and they blamed their leader, actually blaming God! (Exodus 16:8) Each time, God came to Moses’ rescue!
Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, came for a visit to bring back Moses’ wife and two sons. Jethro was thrilled to hear the stories of God’s deliverance through his son-in-law. He observed Moses sitting in judgment with all the people coming to him with their complaints. His advice to Moses was to raise up some helpers to share the load of leadership. Moses should just handle the ‘hard’ cases and let the others do the rest! What a life-saver for this leader!
Lessons for today are plain. First, pray and obey before you complain! When you grumble about your leader, you are grumbling about God! Listen to your leadership and support them by prayer and encouragement! Don’t test or blame God; He is never at fault! (He makes no mistakes) If you are a leader, raise up those who can help you with the work. Sharing the load makes sense and enables others with giftings to share in the blessing and be a part of the solution! Leadership is a joy when you take these tips and your followers do, too! The main one to please in all of this is God. May His face be smiling on your leadership!
“ For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.”