For Better or For Worse
I saw a meme recently about the 1985 film Back to the Future. It illustrated a scene as Doc Brown tells Marty McFly, “Whatever you do, don’t travel to the year 2020.” Trust me, I’m not making fun of the current situation, but who could have told us that the year 2020 would end up like this? I’m not sure I would have believed them.
As a leader, I have found myself asking a few questions (almost daily), and I ask you the same. How do we put into words what is going on in our world? How can we know what to do? How do we move forward with fear, cancellations, and social distancing as a part of our future? How can we be part of the solution and not the problem? As a leader, what is God asking of me? What role do I play in the grand scheme of the current pandemic and racial injustice?
When I hear words like pandemic, violence, unrest, virus, fear, and death, I want to go somewhere on a deserted island and bury my head in the sand. Forget about it all and soak up some me time. Take a nap and hope that when I wake up, it was all a bad dream.
Unfortunately, that’s not the way it happens, especially for leaders. John Maxwell said, “Managers will try to manage a crisis, but you can’t manage it, leaders will be required to lead the crisis.” As a leader, I am feeling unsure and afraid that I may make the wrong move, lead people in the wrong direction, and then say, “Clearly, that was the wrong way, let’s turn around and try the other path.” No leader wants to take that approach. It feels a little like Moses in the desert for forty years. Although it all turned out in the end, that’s a lot of wandering around in a desert! Who wants that to be their leadership legacy?
I came across this definition for a crisis. “A stage in a sequence of events where the trend of all future events, especially for better or for worse, is determined, a turning point.” The definition caused me to take some time for reflection. Take a moment and ask yourself the same.
For better, our leadership, our ideals, our personal life may need to change.
For better, we may need to lay down personal views and opinions to be a part of the solution and not the problem.
For better, we may need to look deep inside our hearts and ask God to reveal prejudices that linger there.
For better, we may need to learn how to lead differently.
Take an online class.
Listen to a leadership podcast or read a leadership book.
Prayer retreat to hear what God is speaking into a situation and direction.
Learn how to ___________________ (fill in the blank).
Taking the leadership approach, for better, can lead to a strong turning point for our life and leadership journey.
At the end of Moses’s life during one of his last leadership “hurrahs,” we see him on the highest peak at Mount Nebo, where God led him to survey the Promised Land for one last time. Scripture says he was 120-years-old, but his vigor was unimpaired (Deut 34:7). He could still climb mountains. We often think finishing well has everything to do with endings. But finishing well as a leader has everything to do with our ability to climb mountains spiritually.
As Spirit-led leaders, we understand the paradox of wanting to bury our head in the sand or choose to climb the mountain. It is both the David and Goliath victory and then David hiding in a cave because he was afraid. It is crossing the Red Sea in triumph yet getting to the other side only to strike the rock in anger. It is Elijah calling down fire from heaven success yet defeated by the brook while the ravens feed him.
“Life is not about comfort. It is about saying, ‘God give me another mountain.’” (Parker Palmer, A Hidden Wholeness).
It’s not a time to stay by the water and stick our heads in the sand, but a time to lace up our hiking boots. We are climbing mountains, my friends, and the stage is set for some better or for worse turning points to occur in our life and leadership. I choose “for better.” What will you do?
I believe that we will see the Church rise resilient in their leadership. A pandemic that stirred up much fear and trepidation will cause the Church to grow stronger in their love, unity, and relationship for one another and a lost world. I believe the 200 years of racial injustice in America will heal because of something that only the Holy Spirit can do, not one person or a group of persons. And I believe that you will win in the end, and the Spirit of God will breathe stronger and more powerful in 2020. “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8: 37-39).