The order must not be confused.
If a leader’ s platform grows while their heart grows cold, devastation is looming. Leaders can grow a company or a church while their hearts grow cold. A leader with a cold heart will make stupid choices, as sin always makes us stupid. Success— however it has been defined— puts more eyes on the impending toppling, a toppling some would love to watch.
If a leader becomes more skilled but less sanctified, everyone loses. A struggle for leaders is that our roles and the opportunities we have because of them will develop our competence. We tend to get better at leading as we lead. The work develops our skills, so if we don’ t simultaneously work on our character with fear and trembling, a gap between our skills and our sanctification( our becoming more and more who God wants us to be) can develop over time.
The action taken to keep the tallest tree in the world, Hyperion, from falling is to keep people away from the tree and keep the tree out of the spotlight. Some have suggested that about leaders too.“ Put more systems around them.”“ Don’ t give them too much freedom.”“ Limit the scope of their influence for their own good.” While leaders, like all of us, need accountability and benefit from wise structures, God prescribes actions greater than protection. He does not merely tell us to not go down the road of destruction; He also offers a better path, a way that leads to transformation. All the boundaries and safeguards, even the wise ones, will be insufficient if the leader’ s heart is not transformed.
Let’ s consider the psalmist’ s vision of a life that is like a fruit-bearing tree:
How happy is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked or stand in the pathway with sinners or sit in the company of mockers! Instead, his delight is in the LORD’ s instruction, and he meditates on it day and night. He is like a tree planted beside flowing streams that bears its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. The wicked are not like this; instead, they are like chaff that the wind blows away.-Psalm 1:1-4, CSB
The one who is blown away like chaff in the wind delights in the instruction of the ungodly; the one who is rooted and fruitful delights in the instruction of the Lord. The psalmist does not command us to be like strong trees who bear fruit. We can’ t make ourselves strong. Instead, the psalmist commends those who delight in the Lord’ s instruction. The action we must take that leads to transformation is to delight in God and His Word.
The Word is better for us than anything the world offers. According to the psalmist, delighting in the Word is the way we get strong roots and bear fruit. And according to Jesus, the Word is the seed that brings forth good fruit. In one of the few parables Jesus explained, the Parable of the Sower, He made clear that when His Word is planted in a heart that receives it, the Word will produce fruit and endurance in the person’ s life( Luke 8:4-15).
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