I love Hallmark movies – especially the Christmas ones! I call it the adult fairy tale channel. It amazes me how they can take the same, highly predictable plot and make it work in so many ways – boy & girl meet, they fall for each other, have some form of conflict, and then discover their happily ever after together. If we dig a little deeper into the plots, we can learn some valuable leadership lessons.
Assumptions
Thanksgiving Day is often marked with an “official” day off from work, holiday sales, annual pageants and parades, and of course, football. But as Thanksgiving Day approaches, we need to make a distinction between the “tradition” and “the meaning of Thanksgiving.”
Are you finishing up your term, heading toward that magic age which society says is the finish line, or just closing a particular chapter? Are you experiencing a change in your life? Maybe your children have flown the coop, or your spouse is no longer living. Or maybe someone else has taken over a leadership role that was yours.
So now you think you’re done.
Well, God sees things differently.
As Paul stated to the Philippians, God wants to complete the good work He started in you:
In some versions of the Lead Like Jesus Encounter, participants are asked to discuss a story from the Civil War. In it, a Colonel Scott, one of the commanders of troops guarding the Capital from attack by Confederate forces in Northern Virginia, comes to President Lincoln to request a dear favor.
Scott’s wife had been in Washington to help nurse him back to health from an illness. But on the way home the steamship on which she was a passenger was involved in a collision in Chesapeake Bay and she drowned.
Malcolm Webber is one of my favorite authors. In one of my favorite books of his, Healthy Leaders, he draws insight from a self-appointed leader named Korah described in the Old Testament book of Numbers, chapters 16-17. I’ve paraphrased these dangers below and contrasted them with 6 qualities of true God-appointed leaders.
Self-appointed leaders…
Having a faith-based conversation at work might seem like a huge challenge depending on your environment and your mindset. The culture today would prefer we leave the faith stuff at home and just focus on the job at hand. In my own experience, there seems to be 3 reasons why people miss the opportunity to speak openly about their faith.
One of the most exhilarating moments recorded in the gospels occurred when Nathaniel met Jesus Christ; he exclaimed: “… Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” (John 1:49, ESV). Jesus’ response was timeless: “… You will see greater things than these” (John 1:50). In American slang, for emphasis, Jesus might have sounded like this: “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”
Within the past month, we have lost two iconic Americans that should cause us to pause and question our motivation as leaders, citizens, employees, church or family members. Senator John S. McCain and Aretha Franklin are far from similar. The differences between them are more than just racial, gender, or even geographical; however, despite their differences there are some common threads throughout their lives.
You may be familiar with the phrase, “Bloom where you are planted,” which was popular several years ago. It simply meant to do the best you can wherever you happen to find yourself regardless of the circumstances. Of course, if you’ve lived any time at all, you know that is more difficult to do than to say.
