Who Am I to lead?

I cannot lead from a center of achievement, or be a leader as a prerequisite for my identity. Yet I want to be known as doctor, teacher, leader. I must come again to God in prayer, in submission, in humble seeking, for God calls me “son.” My heart whines and cries: "this is less!" But God says it is more, much more, infinitely more. 

Leaders Who Love

 Leaders must love the people for whom they are responsible, modeling the consistency of the love that God has poured out on us in Christ. Leadership is a relationship of love. It is an investment in the life of others for the purpose of their growth, their contribution, and their walk with God. Only people who care about people will be effective leaders today.

                                                                                  -Walter Wright, Relational Leadership

Dig

Christ is “hidden like a treasure in the Law and the Prophets.” The metaphors of digging up a field or searching for a hidden treasure make clear that interpretation is and should be ­effortful. 

Reading the Bible is hard work, not primarily because we lack technical exegetical skills, but because we lack spiritual discernment. When we treat the text as an object to be mastered, we place ourselves at a distance from it and lack the spiritual spade we need to dig up Christ... Jesus reprimands the ­experts in the law because the very Scriptures they search “bear witness about me” (John 5:39). The experts know the Scriptures, but their eyes are closed to their deepest meaning. 

When Jesus appears... on the way to Emmaus, he enlightens them by citing the Scriptures: “Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). It isn’t until Jesus breaks the bread that the two travelers’ eyes are opened. 

Technical skills naturally enter into the process of interpretation. But more often our obstacles to proper reading are...problems of spiritual vision.

                                                                              -Hans Boersma, Fear of the Word
                                                                                 in First Things, Aug 2019

Giving and Limits

Maturity in life is when someone is living joyfully within their God-given limits. I find most of us resent limits--in ourselves and in others. We expect far too much from ourselves and each other and often live frustrated and angry lives. Much of burnout is a result of giving what we do not possess.

                                                                     -Peter Scazzzero, The Emotionally Healthy Church, p 144

Truth's Friend

The greatest friend of Truth is time, her greatest enemy is prejudice, and her constant companion is humility.

                                                                                                -Charles Caleb Colton