Over a month ago I went to a 2Day event with Rob Bell. One of the fundimental questions that came out of these two days for most of the young clergy leaders was one about when do we find acceptance as a leader? Now this is a question asked by almost anyone who has a bloss and who wants to see themselves grow in that carrier. What makes this question hard for those of us in the clergy world is that we ask that question of God and about our fundamental calling into vocation.
Are you a great leader when you have the biggest thing, whatever it is that your job is?
Are you a great leader when there are great crowds around you?
Are you a great leader when…?
We often times compair who we are and what we are doing with what someone else has already done. The problem with this is that you are not those people and you are not in their situation. You can never be or do what they did because the variables have changed. I’m not telling you to not look up to people but I am saying that there is so much more to what you are doing.
Rob read to us from the Baptism of Jesus. In the moment that Jesus was baptised there was a ton of stuff going on. I know that I have preached at least 7 different sermons based on that text in Matthew. What I today find most compelling is that when Jesus came out of that water, God said to him “This is my son, my beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” Jesus had only just begun, all he had done was be faithful to God. There was nothing that we would point to as success by today’s standard and yet here God is already “well pleased.”
I wanted to share this with you today for a simple reason. It’s because I as a leader grew up in the trap of judging everything I’ve done against someone elses work and to someone elses standard. I had done this without first remembering that I am a child of God and in my acceptance and faithfulness to his calling on my life I too get to hear those words, “this is my beloved with whom I am well pleased.” Now as a leader I strive hard to fullfill my calling to the utmost of God’s will and strength moving through me. I have prayed for God sized missions, and God sized goals that could scare most yet I begin each day with that simple reminder that because I am a child of God and I am faithful, God is already well pleased.
May you go and serve in faith today and may you be blessed as a child of God.