Podcast, Season 2, Episode 2: Lessons On Leadership From the Life and Times of Ezra (part 2 – God Has A Plan!)
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 2, we build on Monday’s website article and are reminded of God’s plan and purpose in our lives and in our work. This is the transcript of the podcast.
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Last time, I introduced the series and said that we would be diving deeper into principles and practices that connect biblical truth with wisdom and applying them to the practice of leadership. The purpose is to connect faith, wisdom, and leadership in a way that will help you grow in your leadership and make an impact. So, whether you are new to leadership, struggling in your leadership, or simply want to learn more and grow in your leadership, the goal is to help you lead like Ezra, which is to know God deeply, live by His Word, and apply that wisdom in your leadership of others. Therefore, we will be talking through lessons and insights in this series of articles that capture the ideas I talk about in my book, Leadership Ezra (available on Amazon) that can help you in your leadership role!
One of my favorite stories to tell is the story of how God introduced me to the person who would become my wife. It is a story that reveals God’s activity in retrospect even though I didn’t know it at the time, because of how many instances of, “It just so happened . . .” that took place. It began with a new youth program that my dad just happened to introduce in my church when I was a junior in high school, and this particular program included a competition component that let you compete against teens in other churches around the U.S. I did well enough in the competition that I was invited to the awards week that as taking place during a week at a Christian camp in another state, but no one else from my church had qualified for the awards reveal or would be attending the camp week, so my dad happened to find me a ride with another church group taking a busload of their youth to the camp. The driver of that bus was the principal of the Christian school associated with that church. When we arrived at the camp, the counselor of the cabin I was assigned to just happened to have gotten sick, the bus driver and school principal that drove us down filled in as my cabin counselor, and over the course of that week, he had lots of conversations with me as he got to know me. At the end of the week, based on what he had learned about me, he asked me to consider enrolling at his Christian school. As it turned out, they were not able to offer the classes I needed for my senior year, but it just so happened that the principal offered me the opportunity to join them on their school senior trip to Europe anyway. And it just so happened that they were partnering with a couple of other Christian schools from other states in order to have a larger group, and therefore, a lower price for the trip. At the end of that school year, I embarked on that trip, and on day 1, when I got on the tour bus and sat down in the back, it just so happened that the very next person to get on the bus was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen, the one would become my wife. And the apparent coincidences didn’t end there. We met and learned that we were both planning to attend the same University. Once we got to college, we just so happened to end up with jobs at the same place, and eventually just so happened to get leadership roles in brother and sister dorms. It took a while, but we finally realized that God kept bringing us together for reason, and she has now been my best friend, companion, counselor, and spiritual encourager for over 36 years of marriage. And all because it “just so happened . . .”.
The truth is, I don’t believe any of those things were coincidences. I believe God was at work with His plan and purpose, and all of those apparent coincidences were the working out of that plan. The last verse in Proverbs 16 says, “The lot is cast into the lap, but it’s every decision is from the Lord.” I learn from that verse that there are no coincidences with God, so I have therefore also learned to trust God’s sovereign activity in my life. When I see things that appear to “just so happen,” I intentionally choose to recognize them as the hand of God at work.
That should do a few things for your leadership:
- It should take off some pressure that it’s all up to you. Now, that doesn’t mean that there is nothing you need to do, because God still expects you to make your plans and do your work, but (as I have talked about in other places on the website and the podcast) you can trust God to be directing toward His desired outcome. So rest in the fact that God has control, not you.
- It should give you a confidence in the right outcome that God intends, even if it’s not the outcome you intended. There may be things that you learn, or that God teaches, in the process, but your learning is also part of the process. Proverbs 16 also says to “commit your works to Lord, and your thoughts will be established.” Commit to the Lord what you are doing, place the outcomes in God’s hands, and leave them there.
- When it doesn’t go the way you thought, look for what God is teaching you. Even in failure God brings good and uses it to conform you even more to His image.
The bottom line is that God has a plan and purpose that can be trusted, whether or not we can visibly see His hand in it. And as I pointed out in this week’s corresponding website article, that plan is not contingent upon or predicated by my perfection. He doesn’t wait until you are perfect before choosing you as a leader or carrying out His plan. He has a purpose, and you get to be part of it.
I would challenge you to look back over your life and experiences and see if you can spot where His sovereignty has been at work in seemingly random circumstances. Look for times where something “just so happened,” and I think you will be able see how God was involved, and for a purpose. Once you can start seeing it there, it becomes easier to see it in the present, which in turn also makes it easier trust God’s activity in your life and in your leadership. God has a plan, He wants to use you in it, so look for and trust His active involvement.
