Today's Gift

The past week has been a difficult time to be in a leadership position. The COVID-19 virus has rocked our world!  Many people in leadership positions have had to make uncomfortable decisions about closures that affect all of us. It is easy to see the inconveniences but difficult to see the point of all of it.

As a school superintendent, my husband has been one of those on non-stop conference calls from local health officials and state officials gathering and sorting media hype and overreaction from factual information. And from all this information he had to make a decision about school closure that will affect the lives of not only our students and their family members, but our staff and our community members.  On one hand, there will be lack of child care for children whose parents still must go to work and some children who will not receive the adult care and two meals a day that our school provides them. And with absence from school, students will not be practicing those skills necessary to give us an acceptable rating in the hyper-critical eyes of the Texas state government officials, thus affecting our funding. But on the other hand there may be stress on our health care system, due to many susceptible people becoming exposed to this deadly virus.

On those conference calls, state officials 2-stepped around making a statewide decision of closure for schools as well as other direct questions posed to them about repercussions to our school finances and any possibility of releasing us from this year's state mandated tests. So the stress increases. Finally, after much thoughtful consideration with a group of superintendents in our county, the decision was made to close our schools for a week.  And so the complicated work of educating our students remotely is looming ahead of us next week.

This afternoon however, my husband got a gift.  It was a call from an elderly community member.  This man was mourning the loss of a friend in another state to the COVID-19 virus, who left behind a quarantined, lonely widow. Imagine mourning the death of your spouse completely alone for 14 days with no hugs, no family and no friends. This community member expressed his thanks to my husband for the decision he made on behalf of those who are most susceptible to this virus.  That call was a gift.  It helped him remember why we are doing this. So when you find yourself fretting this weirdness of closures, remember why we are doing this. You will never know the lives that you saved.

Image by Sabine van Erp from Pixabay 

7 Surprising Facts about Leadership

If you work for an organization of any kind, you probably know people who are in leadership positions.  And chances are, you don’t agree with all of the choices they make on the behalf of the organization. 

But first, let me define who I am not talking about.  I am not talking about that 1% of people in leadership positions that do it as a power rush.   I am not talking about a takeover-and-dominate-with-a-Hitler-complex attitude that we sometimes find in leadership positions.  Yes, they are out there and yes, they are quite scary.  So please get past these. This is NOT about them. It IS about the people who chose to step up and make the hard choices to what is, in their view, the betterment of an organization or a group. Here is a collection of observations I have made about this leadership.  Some of which, you may find surprising, and some of which you are very aware.  But we all need a reminder.

1. All leaders answer to somebody.  And the higher the position, the more people they must answer to. They are held responsible to not only those who work for them, but for those they serve. When we are looking to a leader, we see them from a selfish point of view; a what-do-they-do-for-me view. We need to widen our point of view to truly assess the effectiveness of a leader.
2. Leaders have access to information that no one else in the organization can ever know.  They know very personal information about interactions of employees.  But most importantly, they do not utter a word of this to anyone because it is privileged information. They know laws that must be followed in which most employees are unaware. Good leaders know who works hard and who does the least they can. They also know the things said to other employees.  They know who is a blowhard, who is a liar for their own gain and who is just difficult. Good leaders take all of this into consideration when making decisions for the betterment of the organization.  
3. Leaders are the ones expected to fix everything with no regard for the resources they lack. Leaders must make the uncomfortable call. They must confront uncomfortable issues when no one else is willing to do so. If a leader shirks this responsibility, he or she is loved, but the company suffers.  A true leader will make the hard call, disregarding his or her acceptance factor.  
4. Leaders are the fall guy for an organization. They are there to protect those under them from losing their paycheck due to company failure.  They must provide those they serve, who do their job well, job security. And they do this by keeping the organization financially sound and at the top of their game. If your company is functioning at the top of their game, thank your leadership. And if you contribute significantly to this endeavor, be thankful that you have job security. 
5. Leadership can be dealt out to an appointed committee or board but in the end, it takes a leader in that group to keep them moving and out of gridlock. Either someone in the leadership group will step up and lead, or they will be forever bogged down in the decision making process, accomplishing zero. The burden of leadership always falls on someone. 
6. Because they confront uncomfortable issues when no one else is willing to do so, leaders are often villainized, cussed and discussed for any and all battles that are being fought.  A leader’s choices are analyzed, criticized and publicized.  Leaders are isolated. No one is willing to hang out with them for fear of brown-nosing. Leadership inherently comes with loneliness. Thus the saying, “It is lonely at the top”. 
7. Leadership is a calling, not a privilege granted to those who deserve it. Leaders are born. However, I think with maturity this ability grows. Can leadership be learned?  Well, I’m not sure. It can be improved and skills can surely be sharpened with experience. People do have varying degrees of leadership. Some will step up and lead in one situation, with one group, but not with another. To me, leadership boils down to a courageous, can-do mindset. There are variables to leadership styles, but each leader must be driven to lead, deep in his or her psyche. And from someone who is NOT a born leader, I believe we should thank a leader for their willingness to take on this position, offering our grace and support for their courage. 
   

Learning the Hard Way

Once upon a time many centuries ago there was a group of people who were singled out to be blessed by God.  They did nothing to earn this honor, they were just chosen to be blessed.  There was one big stipulation for this special group; that they follow only the One True God and not any other fake gods.  Sometimes they pulled this off and amazing timely rescues came to them. (Read Genesis and Exodus.) Then they began listening to other people among them who created and worshiped the fake gods. They neglected their relationship with God and gradually, they drifted away from the God who loved and blessed them so.  

God patiently sent them messenger after messenger to warn them what would happen if they continued to turn away from him. They not only didn’t listen to the messengers, but often persecuted them. They had the gift of free choice and they chose to worship the gods that they could create and control. It wasn’t long until, just as predicted by the messengers, this group lost everything to invaders. Many lost their lives, some were persecuted by the foreigners and some were taken captive.  Their beautiful place of worship dedicated to the One True God was raided and destroyed. During this time period, their Holy city was occupied and claimed by different invaders. After years of persecution and loss, God’s people came to regret their betrayal. 

Ezekiel 6:13 NIV

[13] And they will know that I am the Lord, when their people lie slain among their idols around their altars, on every high hill and on all the mountaintops, under every spreading tree and every leafy oak---places where they offered fragrant incense to all their idols.

This may seem like a harsh lesson, but I did not go into the depths of their depravity or the lengths God took to try to warn them. Humanity is stubborn, and most often, both individually and as a group, we learn the hard way. A small remaining group of this nation saw their error in worshiping idols and turned back to the God who they betrayed. 

This is where the point of my story begins. The foreign King at that time, Cyrus, made the decision to rebuild the temple for this remnant of survivors who decided once again to worship God. Not only did he allow the rebuilding of the temple, he returned the booty that was taken from them many years prior.  King Cyrus did not do this because he believed in God.  In fact, he acted like he revered every god. He liked to cover his bases so he tried to appease them all. As the story goes, the process of rebuilding the Temple took many years and evil men tried to stop it but still God’s will prevailed. 

Ezra 6:14 NIV

[14] So the elders of the Jews continued to build and prosper under the preaching of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah, a descendant of Iddo. They finished building the temple according to the command of the God of Israel and the decrees of Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes, kings of Persia.

This story showed how God worked through non-believing leaders to carry out his plan. While reading this story on the 4th of July, it occurred to me that we Christians in the USA get worried about electing a non-believer to a position of power.  Honestly, I have often voted based solely on the religious persuasion of a candidate and not on his ability to lead or his position on the issues.  I did not research, I voted with my “gut”. But I was wrong. I forgot that God is in control and he is capable of using anyone to accomplish his will. 

So since God is in control should we do anything about our leaders?  I cannot find anywhere in the Bible that lazy, mindless dependence is promoted.  Time after time God gives his people the ability and they have the choice whether to use it. So yes, I believe we as Christians are expected to act justly. (See Micah 6:8) Here are some points to consider. 

1. In the USA we are given a unique privilege to have a say in our leadership. It is a gift, so we should be wise with it. My New International Version of the Bible contains 187 verses referring to wisdom. God has always expected us to choose wisdom. We are not born wise, we must learn.  And that takes effort. We should do some work to research our future leaders, and not just from one point of view. We need to seek information from reliable sources with an open mind. 
2. And as a friend of mine pointed out in a tweet recently, don’t get entertainment confused with factual information. Today’s cable and network news is created to captivate and hold an audience hostage. To hold our attention, they must create drama rather than telling the factual truth that may be a little dry and boring.  That is how they make money. I have found some written news organizations to be more reliable sources of information because they do not appeal to our drama addictions.
3. Take your right to vote seriously. Voting is power. If you have never voted before and are nervous about it, find a buddy to go with you to the polls. 
4. Pray for your leaders especially if they are not doing what you like.  They will answer to God whether they like it or not.  And remember, like King Cyrus, God uses all, (D) and (R), to accomplish his purpose. 
5. Now that you have done your part, relax and trust God to do his thing even if you can’t see it.