Matt's Muzings
Leadership: Wisdom and Grief
As I mentioned in the last Muzing there are new things stirring. I have just taken over leadership of the Discipleship Training Center here in Kona. That means I am over all of the DTSs/CDTSs that we run here. I find myself needing wisdom to know how to do this.
There have been different times when I have felt this way. When I started leading DTSs years ago, when I got married, when I took over the YWAM base in Singapore, when my son was born as a preemie and many, many more times. I find myself lacking and in desperate need of help and it seems all I can do is ask God for wisdom.
IN MUCH WISDOM IS MUCH GRIEF
As this is going on, I am reading Ecclesiastes and a verse from Solomon struck me. Ecc. 1:18 For in much wisdom is much grief, And he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.
I wrote a while ago about how our goal is to turn information into intimacy. I believe this is a key part of a leaders work. Part of the process of turning information into intimacy and finally wisdom, is a painful process. True wisdom cannot be separated from relationships. The more real knowledge we gain about people the more it opens the door to grief and sorrow. The challenge is that I don't naturally want to do this. I find it difficult to move towards pain and sorrow as the doorway to wisdom. Yet if God says the pathway to wisdom is through pain and sorrow then he must have an answer that will help us.
I look for more understanding from God's Word. Paul dealt with leadership and wisdom and he knew an aspect of God that I must confess I don't know well enough.
WE MUST KNOW GOD AS THE GOD OF ALL COMFORT
Ro 15:5 Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus,
2Co 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
Col 4:8 I am sending him to you for this very purpose, that he may know your circumstances and comfort your hearts.
If I am going to be a wise leader and I am going to be able to train up wise leaders then I must know that the way to it is through pain and suffering. In order to walk that path I must understand God as the God of all comfort. I must know God's comfort and be willing to give it to others. That His character attributes includes comfort is a key attribute that all leaders must know.
A KING WHO LOST HIS HEART
Solomon was the wisest man on the face of the earth but he did not know the God of all comfort. Because of this lack of understanding, he sought out false comforts. He had horses, vineyards, concubines and all the riches a man could want and yet he was not happy. He was a leader who lost his heart because he did not know the God of all comforts.
On a personal level, I know how to get comfort from entertainment. I know how to get comfort from food. I know how to get comfort from exercise. These things aren't wrong in themselves, but they can easily become false comforts. As I grow in my leadership it must include an intimate understanding of a God who comforts me in pain and sorrow.
In an information age where wisdom is desperately needed, it cannot be separated from God's comfort. Wisdom will bring grief and we need to be comforted to be able to deal with it.
Leaders have to get comfort in order to give comfort. There is only one place to get comfort and that is from God. The God of all comfort wants to be a strength and support to us. He knows that in order to get wisdom we must also be willing to receive his comfort.