“It’s better to be proactive than reactive.”
In my thirty years of life and experience in leadership roles in Christian organizations, there are leadership lessons that I learned (and continue to learn) from the life of ministry to which God called me. Over that time, He taught me lessons based on stories, principles, and truths from the Bible that have been translated into personal application. This particular series of articles focuses on a set of those lessons drawn from the book of Ezra in the Old Testament, the same lessons that I have published in my latest book. This week, in part 10, I am discussing one of several lessons on the practice of leadership, and this one is about how to handle obstacles and opposition. Here is the transcript of the podcast.
In this series we are diving deeper into principles and practices that connect biblical truth with wisdom and applying them to the practice of leadership. The purpose of the series, and of the website as a whole, is to connect faith, wisdom, and leadership in a way that will help you grow in your leadership and make an impact. That starts with realizing that God has a plan and purpose that can be trusted, whether or not we can visibly see His hand in it, and He has a part for us in this purpose.
We then spent 3 weeks laying the groundwork for effective leadership, using the analogy of the starting blocks in a race, when all the runners line up and get into position, and the starter yells, “On your mark, get set, go!” The first command, “On Your Mark,” was all about getting to the starting line and in the right place by getting yourself into the right frame of mind and equipping yourself for what is coming. Aligning yourself with truth by seeking and knowing God and knowing where He has placed you, and by establishing your foundational beliefs and values, gives you the capability to lead. The second command, “Get Set,” was all about getting into position in the right form, so that you are best prepared to start well. Performing the actions that set you up to be followed and trusted involves living your life so that your actions and behaviors reflect those beliefs, and that gives you the credibility to lead. The final command, “Go,” is when the starter’s pistol goes off and you start running. That’s when your work begins as you start leading your people and your organization toward your mission, vision, or change. This is hard work and therefore requires someone who is both capable and credible, and that’s why this step must follow the other two. But with those things in place, the race is underway, and what follows are the things you do to maintain your pace and your race. We have already talked about the importance of the ability to see the big picture and giving people a voice in the process, and about motivating them. Today we are discussing how to handle obstacles and opposition when they threaten to mess up your plans.
Have you ever had your plans derailed, or things fall apart, because something unexpected emerged that ruined things, or because someone interfered and stopped it from happening. I think for a lot of people, the COVID-19 virus n 2020 played that role. When the virus began to spread and steps were taken by federal and state governments to mitigate the spread, it seemed like the world changed. As the head of a school, for me that meant that students all had to stay home for some length of time, and we had to figure out how we were going to educate all of our students virtually. And by the next school year, we were having to wrestle with whether or how we were going to be bringing students back on campus. We had parents on both ends of the spectrum, some who thought we needed to be incredibly restrictive and hold all of our families to those restrictions, and others who thought we needed absolutely no restrictions or procedures, and that all the other families needed to recognize and accept that. And these were families who loved the school, loved each other, and loved God, yet couldn’t agree with each other. So we had great obstacles in the form of the virus and the necessary procedures around it, and we had great opposition in the form of parents with completely opposing views on this issue trying to force our response. In full transparency, that was one of the most difficult seasons I ever found myself in school leadership. I believe we navigated it very well, but there were still repercussions that I had to manage or deal with for quite some time afterward.
You must accept the reality that you will face both obstacles and opposition in your leadership journey, often from unexpected places and from people you care about. Obstacles can come from anywhere, and could take the form of circumstances, events, or people, and can be both expected and unexpected. Opposition tends to come directly from people, but we often forget that it can come from inside an organization just as much as it can come from outside. Because they will be unavoidable, the best thing you can do is develop coping strategies, so that you are ready to handle it.
There are three things you can do to be prepared:
- Be pro-active. Do this by planning ahead for both obstacles and opposition, knowing that they will come from somewhere. My dad used to say, “It’s better to be pro-active than reactive.” It needs to be said that he was talking about parenting and discipline, but it still applies here. Include as part of your strategic planning process your “disaster preparedness plan.” Just like my family and I always did at the start of hurricane season when we lived in Florida, prepare your plan of response ahead of time.
- Be reactive. Even though you want to first be pro-active, you also want to react in the right way when those challenges happen. Be truthful and transparent and reflect godliness and character in how you respond. Even when you are unjustly attacked, show the love of Christ in your boldness and your truth-telling.
- Trust God. Remember all that I have talked about regarding God’s plan and purpose, and that He works all things out for His good and ours. Then trust His plan, His timing, and His love.
The work of leadership is never easy, and it’s only made more difficult when obstacles and opposition present themselves in front of you. You can’t avoid them, so don’t try to. Instead, prepare for them, respond in the right way, and trust God’s sovereignty and purpose. If you can do that, you can handle whatever comes your way.
In thirty years of life and experience in leadership roles in Christian organizations, there are lessons that I learned (and continue to learn) from the life of ministry to which God called me. Over that time, He taught me lessons based on stories, principles, and truths from the Bible that have been translated into personal application. This series of articles focuses on a set of those lessons drawn from the book of Ezra in the Old Testament (and then published in my latest book). This week, in part 10, I am discussing one of several lessons on the practice of leadership, this one is about overcoming obstacles and opposition.
Facing Obstacles and Opposition
In the summer right after I graduated from high school, I had the privilege of working for one of my uncles, who was a general contractor and owned a construction company. During this particular summer, he was building an apartment complex, and I was there to do whatever manual labor he assigned me to do. My first day on the job, he informed me with a smile that I would be the “gopher” – “you know,” he said, “go for this, go for that, go for whatever I need you to get.” I spent that summer before college carrying lumber, operating a jackhammer, driving a forklift, sweeping floors, sanding walls, and running errands.
Toward the end of the summer, when much of the construction had been done and the finish work was in process, I was given the task of installing the air conditioning wall units in each of the apartments. In a space that had been left open in one of the outside walls of each apartment, my task was to insert the units, connect all the wires and lines, test them to make sure they worked properly, and then clean the area so that it looked neat and finished.
However, in one specific apartment, I ran into a problem. I could not get the unit to fit properly, no matter how I tried, and I began to get very frustrated. I was ready to give up when my aunt walked in and asked me how it was going. I told her, “I have a problem,” and explained what was happening, to which she replied, “Jeff, there are no such things as problems, only challenges to solve or overcome.”
The truth is, there will always be challenges. Since the fall of Adam and Eve and the introduction of sin, there have been difficulties, challenges, and conflict, and work has been hard. Therefore, until we are fully sanctified in heaven, we will always have adversities and adversaries that create difficulty. They may be obstacles that get in our way, or they may be people who oppose us, but regardless, they will be challenges that must be overcome.
The Israelites showed us this, when they experienced great challenges in their efforts to rebuild the temple, described in Ezra 4, 5, and 6, This passage provides us with a picture of the types of attacks and hindrances they experienced, as well as their responses. Then, in chapter 8, we see also see a brief description of the danger of the potential obstacles a team could face. Together, these events give us a good idea of the challenges we also may face.
Ezra 4-6 fills in a major portion of the story of the rebuilding of the temple, which took place over many years. It wasn’t long after they had first initiated construction that people began to try to block their efforts, trying a variety of ways to interfere with the work. Eventually, those opposed to the building that was taking place wrote a letter to the king that painted the Israelites in a bad light. The letter contained half-truths, with biased and twisted information, which resulted in an order from the king to stop construction. It wasn’t until years later that the work began again, and once again, almost immediately, others tried to force them to stop, again writing a letter to the king. This time, Scripture tells us, nothing could get in the way of the work they were doing.
Ezra 8 provides a second glimpse into this issue, this time when Ezra himself was preparing to lead the spiritual leaders back to Jerusalem. As they made their preparations, Ezra crafted a plan that would ensure the greatest success, but he also appealed to God for guidance and for protection from the dangers and obstacles they would face on the road. After they arrived (safely) in Jerusalem, Ezra noted in verse 31 that “the hand of our God was upon us, and He delivered us from the hand of the enemy and from ambush along the road,” pointing out that these were things that could have happened but didn’t, because of God’s protection. In combination, these two scenarios in chapters 4-6 and 8 show us the types of obstacles and opposition we will be up against.
Obstacles can come from anywhere, and could take the form of circumstances, events, or people, and can be both expected and unexpected. Ezra’s appeal to God taken together with his recognition of God’s protection points this out. In 8:22, Ezra foresaw the potential for danger and prayed to God for protection from the enemy, knowing that they would be embarking on their journey to Jerusalem. Then, as we have already seen, in 8:31 he gave credit to God for the protection he provided for them, “from the hand of the enemy and from ambush.”
We can draw from these verses that obstacles can come in a variety of ways. They can be in the form of known enemies, but they could also be in the form of unknown enemies. They could be visible attacks that we can see coming, or they could be surprise attacks that come as an ambush. They could be obstacles that we are anticipating (like a speed bump with a sign that warns us it is approaching), or they could be completely unforeseen (like a pothole that comes out of nowhere). The point is, obstacles can come in almost any form, from almost any direction, with or without warning.
Opposition tends to come directly from people, but we often forget that it can come from inside an organization just as much as it can come from outside. This is the picture with which we are presented in Ezra 4, after the Israelites had begun to rebuild. Here we learn that their adversaries had presented themselves as if they were on the same team, with the same values and the same goals. They tried to look like they were part of the same community, but in reality, they were intentionally trying to deceive, and their motives were destructive.
The same thing happens to us. People will try to assimilate themselves into our organization or align themselves with us in order to be accepted, but with the motive of undermining our efforts or corrupting and changing the culture. Jude 4 talks about this, showing it to be a tactic of Satan, and reveals it as a pattern of allowing evil, then accepting evil, and finally rejecting good. This is the pattern that the opposition uses, claiming to be one of us but instead seeking to destroy.
Opposition can also come from outside, which is what we see a couple of verses later in chapter 4, in verses 4 and 5, where we see that the opposition was obvious, clearly the intent to frustrate and oppose the work, and their methods included physical and verbal attack, discouragement, interference and sabotage, and continual harassment.
This is no different from the opposition we will face. It may shock us to realize the extent to which people will go to hurt others (like the feeling of disbelief I remember having when our home was robbed, disbelief that someone would actually do that to another person), but we are in a world marred by sin, and people will oppose the work of God. Often their efforts will be intentional and planned, prepared with guidance and strategy, for the purpose of blocking, hindering, and stopping the work that we do. And when they have an opportunity, they will jump at that opportunity to cause us to.
The obstacles and opposition we face can be overwhelming and disheartening, and therefore we must be ready to handle it. Looking again at these passages, we can see a few things that help us to be ready; specifically, there are three action steps we can take:
- Be pro-active, by planning for potential difficulties, like Ezra did in chapter 8 when he went to God for protection and prepared a strategic plan.
- Be reactive, by responding in the right way regardless of how we are attacked. This is reflected in Ezra 5:11-13, in the Israelites’ response the second time that charges that were brought to the king against them. In their response, they told the truth, they put the burden on God, and they were unafraid to be bold about their faith.
- Consciously and willingly submit all circumstances to God’s plan and timing. The passage from chapter 4, verse 23, through chapter 5, verse 5, show us this picture, revealing God’s intentional timing regarding when He wanted the work on the temple to be completed.
There is no guarantee that doing work for God will be easy; if anything, there is a certainty that there will be difficulty in work (remember that God cursed the work of man when He confronted Adam in the Garden of Eden). We will encounter obstacles and we will face opposition. But if we are prepared, and if we respond in the right way, and if we trust God’s sovereignty, we can handle whatever comes our way.