Leadership

I just told Dainel Jinks that I was going to blog like the wind, so I'm going to try.

Ok, two things have happened to me in the last 24 hours that have gotten me thinking a lot about what it would look like for me to hold more defined leadership roles. First, last night, I went to Will Kittrell's graduation party, which really didn't celebrate his graduation at all, but rather his engagement to Meg. So Will is going to get married. That made me think, "You know Paul, it might not be too terribly long before you are in a postition to lead a girl in a relationship, and potentially in marriage." How long, I don't know, but the fresh realization that "this could be me soon," hit me.

The second thing is that I was asked to be a family group leader at New Attitude. This means that someone that matters thinks that I should be able to lead a group of singles, most of whom I will not know, at this conference.

That got me thinking. "Am I ready to do this?" Sometimes I feel like a bag full of hot air. I have a lot more knowledge than I actually put into practice. I know things in my head that have not even come close to making the transition into my heart. There are times wher eI might be able to give someone very good advice out of some section of scripture that I know, but then I realize that I probably would not be able to follow my own advice.

However, I think that this is how leadership is supposed to be. Most of the time I'm not supposed to point people to emmulate myself, but rather to emulate Christ, because I don't have it all together. (I know, Paul said something like, "Immitate me as I immitate Christ," but I'm not an apostle so I don't think I'll be using that line very often.)

After my current ponderings have ended, I see that for a man with a godly perspective, offering one's self as a leader is truly one of the most humbling things you can do. I'm certain that a temptation to pride can come when you realize that people are paying attention to what you say because they esteem you worthy to instruct them, however, a godly man realizes just how little actually resides in his heart, and the offer of that as "leadership" really is a fruitless endeavor. Without the grace of God, no leader could be effective at communicating material that leads to growth in those that he is leading.

God enables growth, because leaders are unqualified.