Identity - Leadership Prayers

Identity

It’s not really me, God. It’s just what I do.

Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart. 1 Samuel 16:7, NIV

I lead as an expression of who I am, yet I must always be more than the leadership role I play. People may see me in terms of the visible leadership role which God has entrusted to me, but God knows who I really am. My integrity as a person—and as a leader—depends on seeing myself and what I do as God sees them.

GOD, this leadership role that I play from time to time, this character I assume, is a gift from you. You know I am not essentially the head of all this. I am merely your child, trying to become like you and do what you want.

Playing “leader” for a while is a great role in this real-life drama of The Good King vs. The Evil Prince. But unless you work a miracle, I will not play the role well, and the people I care about so much will suffer.

I know how the story goes: The Evil Prince tries to deceive, disrupt, and destroy anything good I might do. I know that in the long run truth wins, and at the very end good triumphs. I even know which ideas and values are supposed to control each character, including mine. But I also know that I have to write the script as I go and help other people play their parts. And I have to coordinate our script with all the other scripts in other parts of your kingdom. It is beyond me, but if you will whisper the cues, I will improvise.

Unless your Spirit informs and encourages me, I will not know how to play my part. I will stand foolishly silent on the stage, not knowing what I can do or even what I truly like to do. Worst of all, I will not know what I cannot do. Unless you intervene, I will blow my lines and miss my cues and confuse all the others. Help me sense my spiritual gifts so I will attempt only what you especially enable me to do and lead only where you are at work.

Do not let this leadership role consume me. Do not let me think that I have become my character. Remind my spirit who I really am so that when I go home I will not keep acting like the CEO. Guide me to do what is best for my family and for my own health.


If you will whisper the cues, I will improvise.


Please help me keep it all straight. Leadership is extremely important, and I want intensely to do it right, but sometimes I forget where the role ends and I start. So I want your Spirit to remind me, however and whenever you have to . . .

It’s not really me, God. It’s just what I do.

Reflections

The mother and daughter seated across the desk from me were very angry. Both felt that they had been misled about university housing and financial aid. The daughter seemed willing to state her case, hope for some concessions, and get back to her studies. But the mother contended with righteous intensity that it was the principle of the thing.

How could I, the president, allow such a thing to happen at a Christian university? It would be unacceptable even in a secular institution. She was mad, and she held me responsible.

I listened, acknowledged their pain and frustration, made sure they had appealed to the right staff people, apologized for any misunderstandings, asked what they specifically wanted me to do, and promised to look into it and get back to them.

My empathy for them was sincere, my inner spirit at peace. Why? Because I was able to separate my basic identity from my leadership role. I knew that these women did not hate me personally. They were simply enraged at whoever happened to be the president.

Whenever I base my identity or worth as a person on my role as a leader, I betray myself and miss God’s best for me. I am not inherently the leader. I am God’s child whom he dearly loves whether people are pleased or angry with my decisions, whether I succeed or fail.

My next appointment that day was with a couple who were thrilled with their child’s experience at the university. I accepted their praise—but as the president, not personally. It works both ways.

From the Book:

Leadership Prayers cover image


Leadership Prayers
By Richard Kriegbaum
Tyndale
$7.99

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