SUBMISSION. He has been teaching me what it means to submit to leadership and authority. He has taught me about submitting even when I don’t agree with leadership, I may struggle to respect the leader, or I feel that I could do a better job then them. He has taught me instead how to be humble, supportive, and encouraging.
It has been challenging to move from being a leader to a follower. Most of my life I have been in leadership roles and positions in which I have had a lot of responsibility. It has been challenging to for me to move from a position of leadership and responsibility to a place where my primary job is to follow and to submit to those that are in positions of leadership and responsibility. Not only am I supposed to submit, but to encourage and support those individuals even in the times and moments that I feel more qualified or that I could have done a better job.
More than just leadership, God has shifted the areas in which he wants my ministry to be focused. For years God has used me in ministry through preaching, teaching, and leadership. But this year, he has taken me out of those roles and has asked me to pray, encourage, and support. He has asked me to move from the frontlines to the back. While that has been difficult and not at all what I wanted to do or where I wanted to be, God has grown me in those areas. He has helped me to see that these are not “lesser” gifts, but just as crucial to the body of Christ as the areas I’d served in previously. Through that have come many lessons in submission as well. It is humbling to no longer be in the front of the church preaching the word, but to be going up on the mountain away from the group and interceding for teammates, for leadership, for ministries and ministry partners. It has been humbling to be in a place where nobody sees the things that you do or acknowledges or appreciates what you are doing. It has been a great lesson in doing things unto the Lord and not being distracted by who we are serving because we look for approval or appreciation from men.
