Take Your Seat

Like when you start a new job, and there’s jitters on your first day. 

The ‘first day of school’ nervousness. 

Or parents and their excited jitters or anxiousness before their baby is born.

Well, I have something to share with you readers. 

I have a new seat that I’m sitting in.

Over the past 6 months there has been a shift at the World Race. A group of leadership moved on from the race. They were my leaders for the past 2.5 years. I received from them, were mentored by them, and was sad to say goodbye. They were great in many ways. With this vacancy though, seats were empty. It was now my time, to choose to take the place of that seat or not to.

With some joy and nervousness, and trust and faith in my God, I decided to take the seat. 

It’s a great honor to occupy the places that were occupied by the former leaders. They did a great job. And now, it’s my turn. To run with it. 

Transition is never easy, Amen?!

But now that it’s time for the next season to start, I’m humbly ready and willing to make great what God gives me, and be a good steward of it.

What does this new seat involve?

Well, it means more. More work, more responsibility, many more racers to oversee, more influence, etc.

I will be traveling more, teaching more, and developing leaders more. 

I’m learning though, it also means greater service. I want to lead like Jesus led. And he did not desire acclamation, he didn’t force respect. He didn’t rule with an iron fist, flaunt money around, or put on the best looking show or demeanor. He served by love. He served by sacrifice. He served by knowing his authority and walking in it. He knew his father’s voice intimately and spoke it. He had vision for his future, and knew why he was put on this earth. He went to the cross and died to fulfill the vision of His father. He loved the vision, and the people. He empowered. He loved. He served.

I want to do the same. This season for myself, and my few co-workers, is a new seat of honor. It’s a privilege to walk in this role. But I also want to honor it and the people that look to this seat – with the upmost care, love, and servants heart as possible. 

I’ll end with this, a short story:

I’m here in Phnom Penh, Cambodia as I type this. I took a bus down with E Squad from Siem Reap, in the North, to Phnom Penh, in the south. It was an 8 hour bus ride. Well, as myself and my 3 co-leaders got on the bus, the entire squad of 40 was already seated. The problem was, the bus didn’t have enough seats for all of us. So I find myself standing in the isle, looking around to see what’s going to happen. Will a seat somehow open up, do I sit on the floor, what do I do? Well, after a few minutes of confusion and waiting, I notice there’s an empty seat nearby, so I sit in it. But as I do, I see that a few racers/missionaries gave up some of their seats and are now laying or sitting on the floor in the isle. Including two of their group leaders/squad leaders. 

After we take off, and start on the road, I start to wonder if I should switch; Lay down on the floor, give up my seat, and get over how uncomfortable it would be, and just do it. But then I rationalize it away, thinking that the few people on the floor already denied my offer to switch 5 minutes after we left, and they actually looked pretty comfortable, and well, I’m one of the Leaders of the race, so at least a nice seat for me in the middle of the bus is probably justifiable given my role. 

Well you see, the problem with that thinking, is that I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It was slowly, and quietly taking up my thoughts for the first hour of the ride. Which meant an opportunity to ignore the thoughts and pretend they weren’t there, or accept it. Accept my shortcoming. Accept the lesson. Accept the correction.  

And then it hit me. I realized it!

This is not only about this bus ride. This is a bigger heart issue inside of me. One that crept in and I didn’t realize it until this moment. I wasn’t quick enough. My heart did not have a quick response as it once did. You see, I shouldn’t have even needed to wait and see if a seat would become empty, or wait for someone to give up their seat for me. I should have laid down. Quickly. Who cares about my title! Who cares about my position! Who cares about what I should deserve! Apparently that few minutes of me waiting did.

What matters is that I serve. That I love. That I don’t get pride. That I don’t get entitlement. 

And then I felt/heard this whisper in my spirit/mind…”Noe, the past four days don’t mean much if in this moment you can’t lay down.”

Wow, it hit me hard and good. The past four days I exhausted myself serving and loving A Squad. Myself and Tim flew out here to put on a debrief for them, to love on them. We had worship times, speaking, team debriefs and trainings. 3-4 hrs of sleep a night, meeting/session/teaching moment after moment for 4 full days. Exhausting. (Thai massage thrown in there too 🙂 If anyone had the right to a seat it was probably me. But all of that doesn’t mean anything to the heart of God, if when confronted with a private moment of humility I don’t take it. On the bus, I wasn’t quick to be the least. But if I keep that servants heart at all times, not just during when people are looking, but even when they’re not, then that is true leadership. Because people notice love. People notice service. People notice an approachable heart that doesn’t shout ego or status. People notice humility. 

And so with that, I want to measure my success of this new role, not based on how well I can make my name known, but based on how well I can take the new realms of authority and positional leadership, and serve and love from my heart. The Jesus way. Not because it’s me in the seat, but because it’s a seat of honor, of sacrifice, of servant love. 

Jesus took his humble seat of the cross and the grave, before he took it at the right hand of the Father. What a privilege to do the same. 

JESUS!!! 

“TO HIM WHO OVERCOMES, I WILL GIVE THE RIGHT TO SIT WITH ME ON MY THRONE. JUST AS I OVERCAME AND SAT DOWN WITH MY FATHER ON HIS THRONE.” (REV 3:21)

“Father, help me to overcome pride, and serve. To overcome comfort, and suffer well. To overcome fear, and believe. To overcome temptation, and resist. To overcome the enemy, and stand. Thank you Father, for the strength to overcome!”