Last night I dreamt that I was being threatened in my home on behalf of someone who wanted to live here in my place. In my dream I found myself ashamed of how all too easily I could become aggressive.
Fear quickly controls us all. Johnny Cash could sing powerfully of "The Beast in Me". We all know that beast.
Sometimes I and colleagues share about the loneliness of leadership. There are pressures that we bear alone.
Simon Walker's book, The Undefended Leader, speaks of leading out of who you are.
He contrasts the authority of the Nelson Mandela's of this world with commonplace leadership. All leadership is based on the use of power. But great leadership he suggests involves being honest about vulnerability, involves being willing to lift the veil on one's own weakness.
This is not easy. Leadership often involves not only dealing with conflict but also navigating around situations that sometimes are barely understood. In such situations it is difficult to understand one's inner psyche. Control and dominating seem to offer an easy and safe escape from chaos. The result is the creation of communities in the image of the leader. This is the temptation for those who tend to regard the world as a favourable place, which can be influenced. It is safe - on their terms. For those whoe see the world as unfavourable the temptation to define the world in their own image is much more explicit.
An alternative is to adapt to circumstances around: leadership that sees which way the wind is blowing and leads in that direction. It is difficult to influence people do you 'go with the flow'.
Both those that adapt and those that seek to shape their communities in their own image lead out of a need for approval. And for those who see the world mainly as a dangerous place, and who have little trust in themselves or others, the tendency will be towards caution and defensiveness.
What is the solution? It comes in finding a proper source of approval. Billy Graham was once asked how he felt about speaking to the Queen. He responded that it was no different to meeting anyone else, for he spoke with the King of Kings every day (my example).
How can such security be nurtured? In a discovery of who God is.
"[I]t is the compassion and unconditional generosity of God that compels him to reach out to those in need, even though they do not deserve it. This idea, of course, turns religion on its head. Religion is the social phenomenon in which human beings offer service to various divinities. According to Jesus and the writers of the New Testament, this activity of religion has nothing to do with God at all. God is not someone who is served, but someone who serves." (p118).
At p.119 he says that there is a choice to be made. "Do we choose to experience life as a possession that may be taken away from us, or as a gift generously bestowed on us?"
Fear quickly controls us all. Johnny Cash could sing powerfully of "The Beast in Me". We all know that beast.
Sometimes I and colleagues share about the loneliness of leadership. There are pressures that we bear alone.
Simon Walker's book, The Undefended Leader, speaks of leading out of who you are.
He contrasts the authority of the Nelson Mandela's of this world with commonplace leadership. All leadership is based on the use of power. But great leadership he suggests involves being honest about vulnerability, involves being willing to lift the veil on one's own weakness.
This is not easy. Leadership often involves not only dealing with conflict but also navigating around situations that sometimes are barely understood. In such situations it is difficult to understand one's inner psyche. Control and dominating seem to offer an easy and safe escape from chaos. The result is the creation of communities in the image of the leader. This is the temptation for those who tend to regard the world as a favourable place, which can be influenced. It is safe - on their terms. For those whoe see the world as unfavourable the temptation to define the world in their own image is much more explicit.
An alternative is to adapt to circumstances around: leadership that sees which way the wind is blowing and leads in that direction. It is difficult to influence people do you 'go with the flow'.
Both those that adapt and those that seek to shape their communities in their own image lead out of a need for approval. And for those who see the world mainly as a dangerous place, and who have little trust in themselves or others, the tendency will be towards caution and defensiveness.
What is the solution? It comes in finding a proper source of approval. Billy Graham was once asked how he felt about speaking to the Queen. He responded that it was no different to meeting anyone else, for he spoke with the King of Kings every day (my example).
How can such security be nurtured? In a discovery of who God is.
"[I]t is the compassion and unconditional generosity of God that compels him to reach out to those in need, even though they do not deserve it. This idea, of course, turns religion on its head. Religion is the social phenomenon in which human beings offer service to various divinities. According to Jesus and the writers of the New Testament, this activity of religion has nothing to do with God at all. God is not someone who is served, but someone who serves." (p118).
At p.119 he says that there is a choice to be made. "Do we choose to experience life as a possession that may be taken away from us, or as a gift generously bestowed on us?"
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