Migraines and Immobility:
The Side Effects of Leadership
-David A. Burrus
AS I WAS SITTING in one of my favorite
cafes this evening enjoying some tea, I received a very
alarming text from a good friend of mine. The text
read, “Another pastor committed suicide.” The text
was so brief, direct, and to the point because it was a
continuation of a conversation that he and I have been
having over the last year and a half. What’s even more
interesting is that I was having coffee this morning (I
promise, I do more than hang out in coffee shops) with
a pastor friend of mine, and he and I were discussing
the constant onslaught and berating that leaders, and
pastors in particular, have been suffering as of late.
In fact, he was sharing with me some of the personal
attacks that he’d been experiencing in his marriage just
this week. What is going on with leadership? Why is
the enemy so intentional about attacking leaders? The
answer is obvious, but let’s spend some time unpacking
it for a few moments.
A few months ago I had the worst headache that I had
ever experienced in my life. It was so bad that I literally
took a cold shower to distract myself from the pain of
it, but that wouldn’t help it. All that I could manage
to do was to lay down, in agony and restlessness,
praying that it would go away. No pill worked, and no
home remedy would relieve me of the pain that I was
experiencing. It was so bad that my limbs began to
hurt. It hurt to talk and to walk. It hurt to look, and it
even heart to hear. For all intents and purposes, what
was going on in my head paralyzed my entire body.
Did you catch that? A sickness in my head literally shut
down the functionality of my body. The head impacts
the body.
As I am dealing with migraines and immobility,
please note that I am speaking to a much deeper
issue than a “head cold”. I am speaking to spiritually
and emotionally sick leaders that are making major
decisions with “head colds” that are affecting the
body to whom they are attached. I am speaking of
organizational heads in the marketplace that are being
exposed for moral failures, or ministerial leaders
and clergy in our churches that are falling prey to
temptation and suicide. These “head colds” don’t
just impact the leaders, but they have a very adverse
reaction to the bodies that are connected to the
leadership.
In Psalm 133:1-2, the Bible speaks of the power of
unity in the body of Christ. It reads:
“How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live
together in unity! It is like the precious oil poured on
the head, running down on Aaron’s beard, down to the
collar on his robe.”
What a descriptive account of the power of unity in
the body of Christ. However, I want us to lean into
the imagery that is laid out for us. The psalmist said
it is like precious oil that flows from the head, down
the beard, and gathers at the bottom of the robe.
Did you notice that whatever was on the head was
weighty enough to reach even the lowest places on
the body? The oil of anointing saturated Aaron’s head
and eventually his body. If the anointing that is on the
head can saturate the body, so too can the curse that
is on the head saturate the body. The body is often a
clear indicator of the condition of the head. Your body
will only wear what your head tells it to put on. The
body will only eat what the head gives it permission
to eat. The body will only go where the head gives it
instruction to go. Mass murderers don’t kill because
their hands tell them too; it was their head that
committed the crime.
The question then has to be asked, how do we treat
“head colds” in leadership? What are we to do when
we as leaders find ourselves leading while bleeding? I
submit to you that if we treated these matters the same
way that we treated a common cold, we would have
less catastrophes in leadership. Take a look at these
five practical processes for treating “head colds” in
leadership:
1. Diagnose the problem. You can’t treat what you are
unwilling to admit exists.
Continued on pg. 27