Matt's Muzings
What Impresses a Good Leader?
Did you ever wonder what impresses a good leader? Let me go back a few days and explain why this question stuck out to me. I was woken up by an early morning phone call, 5:45 AM on a Saturday morning. My wife, Celia answered it and after a moment, she had a strain in her voice. I wondered what happened. She put the phone down and said there was a fire in the field next to the base.
I quickly dressed and drove down to the base. As I was going down the highway I could smell the thick smoke and my asthma started to act up. I wondered if I should go any further as I didn't have my medicine with me. The smell got less intense so I drove on. As I turned into the base and drove up by the fountain there was a glow of orange in the field right next to the campus. I got out of my car and began to walk around to try and understand what was going on. The fire was moving across the field towards the campus, but the wind was blowing the other way. For a brief period of time there were flames jumping 15 feet in the air as it consumed the underbrush and moved slowly towards the base. Firemen arrived and began fighting it on many fronts.
I grabbed a hose and began watering an area around the campus just in case. The wind was blowing pretty strong away from the campus so it seemed like all would be alright. I knew we were re-roofing one of the buildings and there was only tar paper on part of the roof. Our old wooden buildings could go up very quickly. As I watched the flames throwing glowing embers in the air and the wind blowing them down towards town, I thought how with the change of wind we could easily loose every thing in a few hours.
On a more recent note, with the loss of the Space shuttle Columbia , we see how in a moments time, out of nowhere, we could lose it all. An accident, a mistake, selfishness, or just natural disaster, and we could see our work gone. As I was reminded of our weakness I was struck by how much I am impressed with power, strength and capacity.
What impresses God?
On our Monday morning worship time I was still pondering this and I had this idea that God must be impressed with power. After all what impresses me should impress Him, right? Then it struck me, He is not impressed with power in the slightest bit. He has all power. Infinite is the word we use to describe Him, and that means endless.
So what impresses the most awesome leader in the universe? I think that is an important question for us to know. As I was reflecting on this, I was struck by this simple thought, God is impressed with vulnerability. He has great joy in seeing it because it creates room for him to express His power through our weakness. He loves humility, weakness and vulnerability, and He is more impressed with that than any amount of power possible.
Like a poor street beggar who has nothing and then finds ten dollars and begins to brag about it, among beggars it may sound impressive, but to the wealthiest man in the world, it would mean nothing. God paves the streets with gold and uses a single pearl for a gate. Power and wealth won't impress Him. So what will?
Do you want to impress God? Allow yourself to be human. Find ways to humble yourself, to walk in weakness and vulnerability and empty yourself to others as a way of preparing the way for God. If you and I do that, then and only then do we impress God. For God dwells with the weak and contrite of heart. Compared to him, anything and everything is weak. He is not ashamed of it or bothered by it in any way. He finds great pleasure in it.
Join me in finding ways to let ourselves be weak and vulnerable in this month. If we do that we know that God's eyes will be upon us and His heart towards us. I want to be impressed with the things that impress God. That is my only safety.