If called, would you turn from your
peers, break from tradition, reject what you believed to be true and fully
follow Christ’s new commission on your life to be His leader?
July’s
Awakening, Day 22
There are only three kinds of people
in the world—those that are movable, those that are immovable, and those that
move them.
—Li Hung Chang, when General Charles Gordon
asked about the nature of leadership
The man who wants to lead the
orchestra must turn his back on the crowd.
—James Crook
Anyone
can steer the ship, but it takes a leader to chart the course.
—John C. Maxwell
“The
Jewish people all know the way I have lived ever since I was a child, from the
beginning of my life in my own country, and also in Jerusalem. They have known
me for a long time and can testify, if they are willing, that I conformed to
the strictest sect of our religion, living as a Pharisee. “I too was convinced
that I ought to do all that was possible to oppose the name of Jesus of
Nazareth. And that is just what I did in Jerusalem. On the authority of the
chief priests I put many of the Lord’s people in prison, and when they were put
to death, I cast my vote against them. Many a time I went from one synagogue to
another to have them punished, and I tried to force them to blaspheme. I was so
obsessed with persecuting them that I even hunted them down in foreign cities. Acts
26:4–5, 9–11 NIV
When God gets your attention, and
calls you to lead, it’s time to turn from your past and move into the future
with Him. Oftentimes, this means turning your back on the crowd, breaking with
standardized tradition, rejecting the status quo, and trusting where God wants
to take you and who He wants you to lead. This is not easy.
Saul (who later became known as Paul
the apostle), was the epitome of the noble Jewish Pharisee sect, who were
characterized by strict adherence to the Law of Moses and the Jewish oral
traditions handed down over the centuries. They were looking for the Messiah,
but visualized him as the conquering and liberating king who would restore the
nation of Israel to her destined glory. They did not realize that the King
would come first as the suffering servant, the sacrificial lamb of God to take
away the sin of the world. It took the “Road to Damascus” experience for Saul,
when he had a direct visitation from Christ with instructions, and being
blinded for three days, to convince him of his new course of leadership that
would forevermore change his life and the lives of innumerable souls in all the
generations to follow.
You may not have a direct vision or
actual visitation from Christ, but He may call you still in any infinite number
of ways to rise up as the next leader to bring a whole new generation into a
relationship with Him and a better life of complete wholeness and wellness and
spiritual awareness. Like Paul, you may have to turn your back on the crowd and
break from tradition, but always great are His rewards.
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