Leaders have to make difficult decisions that are often met with criticism and resistance. At times, they become the target of unfair attacks and false accusations. Given these realities, it’s not surprising that many leaders struggle with loneliness.
It’s not hard for me to think about multiple examples of personal failure over my 51 years of life. I can recall so many bad decisions–dumb ones, sinful ones, immature ones, naive ones, rash ones, prideful ones. Like I said, I remember too many. The problem is, leaders have to make multiple decisions all day, every day. The more decisions we need to make, the greater potential there is to make another bonehead decision. So what do we do? Well, you could:
It is not for kings, O Lemuel,
It is not for kings to drink wine,
Or for rulers to desire strong drink,
Lest he drink and forget what is decreed,
And pervert the justice of all the afflicted. (LSB)Proverbs 31:4–5
I’ve noticed with increasing frequency that not only are more pastors and even Christians in general drinking more openly, there seems to be a growing number that are using social media to promote their newfound freedom, with some even encouraging others to join in.
“God is present in every council of those gathered to legislate and to lead. He is a silent witness to the actions of men; He hears every word; and, He understands exhaustively the motives of the heart. God does not take lightly the stewardship of ruling.” - P&D
“People easily sniff out pride, and they will not trust a proud leader. They may admire his skills, but that is not trust.” - Randy Alcorn
“While every church, pastor, and spiritual leader has a philosophy of ministry, not everyone can articulate what it is. Nevertheless, something is driving the what and the why, even if people are not fully cognizant of those underlying factors themselves.” - Cripplegate
“You need to learn how to talk about your leadership experiences in ways that relate to the jobs you are seeking. By this, I mean tone down the insider language and talk about the transferable aspects of what you have done.” - IFWE
“…there are a lot of ironic aspects of leadership. However, in my opinion, the most essential principle is that the ultimate job of a leader is to work themselves out of a job.” - Phil Cooke
“Christian leaders are called to be servant leaders, willing to be last in order to lead (Matt 20:26). Even Christians, though, wrestle with a desire to be powerful and influential.” - Chuck Lawless
Scripture is clear—Proverbs in particular—that there are such things as fools and these individuals are nothing but trouble. We shouldn’t be in their company more than necessary—much less put important responsibilities in their hands.
Though the English word “fool” appears 60 to 65 times in most English versions of Proverbs, the book doesn’t offer a concise definition. That leaves us with some ambiguity. How many of the traits of fools does someone have to have to be rightly classified as a fool? Are we supposed to take the qualities of fools only as way to gauge the degree of foolishness?
