Empty For The Sake Of Another

Many times we have heard about the leadership, maybe there are many examples that we have around us, we are leaders in our community.

But will we be doing this work properly? or will we be a little out of focus of what is really a leader?

It is one of the dirtiest lies that Satan whispers in the ear of our comfortable and vindicating generation.

Since we can remember, we were indoctrinated, at almost every moment, with the idea that being "a leader" means getting the golden star. Leadership is a form of recognition, a kind of fulfillment, the path to privilege. Being declared a leader is like winning a prize or being identified among the gifted.

Leadership is a way of success. And since you can do what you dream, and you can get everything you define in your mind, you can also be a leader - at home, at work, in the community, in the church. Why would you content yourself with less? Leadership means privilege, and no generation was considered more privileged than ours.

The lie about the address

What the world thinks about leadership is in the air of our society, felt in the subtext of our adolescence, and reinforced in our public elections. We are swimming in it everywhere. Why continue when you can lead? Why contribute to the glory of another when in your place you can be the main beneficiary?

As new and inspiring as it may seem, it is an old deception. From the garden, to the history of Israel, to the Middle Ages, to our innate notions of leadership today, the natural, human, and sinful way of thinking about leadership is to be the king of the hill. See leadership as the ascent to honor and privilege, instead of going down to meet the needs of others.

One of the distinct marks of Satan's influence in a society - evidence that the god of this world is blinding mass unbelievers - is that leaders dominate their leadership over those whom they must care for. The lie can be as prominent (and embraced) today as it always was, but by no means is it new.

Leading with humility

The voice that most clearly calls the true path of leadership - leadership as sacrifice, not privilege - is Jesus himself. He warned hard against the pagan and religious leaders of his day who sought to use their people for their own benefit, instead of serving.

"You know that the rulers of the people who dominate and those who are great exercise authority over them, not so among you, on the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you will be the one who serves you, and whoever wants to be the first among you You will be your servant, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. "(Matthew 20: 25-28, also Mark 10: 42-45)

Jesus calls us to have a clear Christian perspective on leadership. And if these words of Jesus about the nature of the true address were not enough, it became unforgettable, on the night before his death, on his knees with a bowl and a towel in his hand.

"For if I, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet, for I have given you an example, so that, as I have done to you, you may do as well. "(John 13: 14-15).

Sacrifice for their joy

The apostle Peter, who led the apostles to be the first to act in this way, reaches the same clear note for a different vision in the church. Christian pastors must serve "not by force, but willingly, as God wants, not by sordid covetousness, but of good will, nor as rulers of those who were trusted, making them models of the flock" (1 Peter 5: 2). 3).

For a follower of Jesus, greatness in leadership is not defined by how many you have below you, but how consistently and meaningfully you are led by the Holy Spirit to make personal sacrifices to serve the true needs of others. Christian leadership, as John Piper says, is "knowing where God wants people to be and taking the initiative to use God's methods to bring them there with confidence in the power of God." And taking such an initiative is typically another way of saying "sacrifice." The initiative is personally expensive.

What specifically is the good thing for which faithful leaders will take initiative and make sacrifices? According to the apostle Paul, it is to work for the joy of those who are in our charge. "Not that we have dominion over your faith, but because we are collaborators of your joy, because, by faith, they are already signed" (2 Corinthians 1:24).

Leadership as sacrifice

Christian leadership, then, is fundamentally about giving, not taking. Christian leaders are not empty and immature individuals who seek to sustain themselves with new privileges. On the contrary, they are men and women sufficiently safe and mature to empty themselves for the good of others.

Mark this, husbands and fathers, pastors and presidents, the very essence and heart of leadership is to take the initiative that we would not otherwise take and make sacrifices that we would not otherwise make, to guide our people to a good place that otherwise they would not have gone. We adopt short-term personal difficulties for long-term corporate profits. We are among those who are learning that the greatest joys of life do not come in their own comfort and ease, but in the choice of what is uncomfortable and difficult for the good of the joy of others. We are learning to find our joy not in the ease of caring for ourselves, but in the hardness of caring for others.

Christian leadership-at home, in the church, and in other places-is not for those who seek honor and recognition, but for those who are most ready to fall on their knees and be bothered by the needs of others. They are those who, in a certain way, have their house in sufficient order to be able to turn their attention to serve others. Instead of pursuing their own immediate benefit, they are willing to sacrifice themselves for the benefit of others.

As the Son of Man, we lead not to be served, but to serve (Mark 10:45). We die for ourselves so that others can live.