“Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you.” Hebrews 13:17
Over the years I’ve had a lot of great leadership over me. I have rarely questioned their authority or doubted their abilities. On the World Race I’ve been blessed to have wonderful team leaders as well. This month I have seen the importance of good leadership, of leading with integrity. Our ministry has been almost non-existent here in Nepal and part of the reasoning behind that is the lack of leadership; most days our only contact is a fourteen year old boy. So what do you do?
You follow your leadership. Listen to ideas from the team and follow in your leader’s footsteps. Tea time every morning at 7:00 a.m.? For what reason exactly? It doesn’t matter; go anyway. Mostly, I’m good at following leadership. Sometimes I want to understand the behind-the-scenes more than what’s necessary, but besides that I follow just fine. This month I have seen what happens when you don’t have leadership and when people don’t follow the leadership in place; it’s not good. The verse from Hebrews puts this into perspective: when we make it difficult for leadership it isn’t fun for them to lead. And, it’s not beneficial for us.
Good leadership requires integrity. I’ve thought a lot about integrity in the last couple of weeks. It’s a trait I really admire in others, but one I’m not sure I have much of. That sucks to write because I don’t want to admit I’ve lived without integrity for a long time, but it’s true. While I was contemplating integrity, I found this quote I had sent to someone at the beginning of the year:
“Living with integrity means: not settling for less than what you know you deserve in your relationships. Asking for what you want and need from others. Speaking your truth, even though it might create conflict or tension. Behaving in ways that are in harmony with your personal values. Making choices based on what you believe, and not what others believe.”
— Barbara De Angelis
People pleasing and integrity don’t go together very well. I despise making people mad or upset and I loathe being in conflict. All of that is still true; I don’t like those things one bit. It is a quality of my personality that I like. Because of it, I am mindful and sensitive toward others. One of my giftings is harmony… so acting based on others’ beliefs instead of my own means I’m not being true to myself. This explains everything. Okay, not everything, but it’s hard to be happy when you sacrifice your own harmony for others’.
Enter depression and no self-worth.
Add in a bunch of crappy life experiences.
=
No integrity.
Phew, glad that’s over.
Each month of the race I feel like there’s a focus, a theme if you will, for what God is teaching me. This month has been about integrity. For me, that means speaking up when something bothers me. It means standing up to people who are talking badly about someone else. It means creating tension in order to have true harmony.
So cheers! Let’s have integrity. Let’s never settle for less than what God calls us to be or allow others to be less than what He calls them to be.
