Matt's Muzings
Leadership and Discouragement
I have wrestled with what to write this month. As Muzings is about the human side of leadership and what are issues for me, the issue before me is that I am discouraged. I don't want to say that. I want to pretend that everything is upbeat and I am feeling great. I ponder, can leaders get discouraged? I am confronted that I have been writing about - humility and need to walk it out.
I remember that at least three times God says to Joshua, "Be strong and courageous" it seems obvious you say that to someone who may be, or might get discouraged.
I look up notes by James Dobson:
"Dr. R. T Kendall, the gifted senior minister of Westminster Chapel in London, said it leads directly to what he calls "the betrayal barrier." In his opinion, 100 percent of believers eventually go through a period when God seems to let them down ... more than 90 percent of us fail to break through this betrayal barrier after feeling abandoned by God. Our faith is then hindered by a bitter experience that we can't forget.
"It is an incorrect view of Scripture to say that we will always comprehend what God is doing and how our suffering and disappointment fit into His plan. Sooner or later, most of us will come to a point where it appears that God has lost control - or interest - in the affairs of people. It is only an illusion, but one with dangerous implications for spiritual and mental health."
I look up notes from Phillip Yancey:
"Abraham, dazzled by God's promises, left home and migrated hundreds of miles to the land of Canaan. Despite the honor as the father of this new race, it is the first case of disappointment with God. He entertained angels, dreamed mystical visions of smoking pots. But, after the promise and blazing revelation, came silence, long years of silence. Later on you could hear a laugh of ridicule and also of pain. God had dangled a bright dream of fertility before a barren couple and then sat on his hands and watched as they advanced toward old age. Isaac meant laughter. Then Abraham was asked to take Isaac and kill him. Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel - all spend their best childbearing years slender and in despair. Somehow, that "faith" was what God valued. No one is exempt from tragedy or disappointment - God himself was not exempt."
Heb 12:3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart.
HOW DOES A LEADER DEAL WITH DISCOURAGEMENT?
First thing you have to do is admit it. (This is what I am doing.)
SEEK GOD
I was stirred by a message at church about the Presence of God. I came home and began to look up scriptures on the presence of God and several stuck out at me.
2 Sam 21:1 Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David sought the presence of the LORD.
1 Sam 30:6 Moreover David was greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him, for all the people were embittered, each one because of his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God.
LISTEN TO GOD AND LOOK FOR THE ISSUES THAT ARE WEIGHING YOU DOWN