Matt's Muzings
Leadership and Uncertainty
HOW CAN I BE CERTAIN?
These days, we are dealing with organizational change here in Kona. There is healthy tension and we are struggling to figure out how to move forward. I don't mind the tension as I know it will help pull us into the future. That is the role of tension.
But in the midst of tension, I find in me a temptation to act like Zacharias. He was an old priest who was ministering to God in the temple when an angel appeared to him and told him that his wife would give birth to a son. His son would be a prophet who would challenge the nation of Israel.
Zacharias had a supernatural experience, yet his response was, "How shall I know this for certain? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years."
What the angel told him confirmed a deep longing in his heart and it was too painful to even think about it, if it was not going to happen. The painful thought of disappointment was too much. He wanted certainty. He wanted to know for sure that it would happen.
This is a temptation for all leaders, especially in times of change. I want
to know for sure what is going to happen. I want to be certain. Daniel
Taylor writes and says:
"Human beings are explanation generators. We crave explanation because it contributes to perhaps the most basic of all nonphysical human needs -- the need for security. From our earliest moment to our last we are vulnerable. Destruction - physical, mental, emotional, spiritual - threatens us at all times. A fall from the curb, a lost job, a bitter word, a public humiliation -- at every point we feel the hazards of life. The great bulk of human activity of every kind aims at lessening that vulnerability. Making money, seeking love or accomplishment, buying insurance, courting power, wearing the right shoes, writing books, having children, reading books, not having children, not reading books - all these and countless other daily activities are way of protecting ourselves from the myriad threats to our sense of personal safety and well-being."
As I wrestle with this process of change I am tempted to trust my explanations of life. But my explanations alone cannot be the basis of my security. If I trust my explanations and grasp them to provide certainty, then I am trusting myself and not God.
In any new vision or in the midst of change or challenge, people are always free to choose. It is a risk. This is the pain. Daniel Taylor goes on to say:
"No significant area of life is free from risk. It is a key ingredient in every accomplishment and every relationship. Whenever a decision is required, there is risk. Wherever we must act, there is risk. Wherever people intertwine their lives, there is risk. Should we expect it to be any different in our relationship with transcendence? Why should we insist on having unmistakable absolutes on which to build a faith when none of these is compatible with being finite creatures God has created?
"If risk is an inescapable part of the daily life of the businessman or woman, the politician, the farmer, the artist, if it is at the heart of all meaningful relationships between people, then we should not be chagrined or embarrassed to find it also at the heart of a relationship with God. Believers have always been risk takers (how else does one explain Abraham or Bonhoeffer?). Perhaps it's because God Himself has been a risk-taker; witness His decision to create human kind and then to make Himself one with us."
THERE IS NO ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING AND LEADERSHIP WITHOUT UNCERTAINTY.
Risk means it might not go the way I want. I may lose and even get hurt.
Certainty may provide some security, but it will not offer growth in new
areas. The certainty Zacharias sought cost him his voice for at least 9 months.
What will it cost me in not living out a risky faith that God is big enough
to deal with whatever comes my way? I don¹t want to find out because
I am choosing to take the risk and trust those I am called to work with that
we can find a way. Not necessarily my way, but a way that expresses who we
are called to be.
Organizational change is not about one person being certain and all others
in compliant agreement. It is about walking out a process of faith,
expressed through love in the context of different giftings with a clear picture
of where we are and where we are going.
No one can know with certainty how to be involved in change. Even after studying
it for years, it still must be an choice of faith on my part to be
involved and be willing to take the risk and learn. It is a good reminder
for me and hopefully for you.