In a world full of anti-heroes, give everyone around you a godly example to follow. Swim against the tide, go against the grain, and be in the class of Hebrews 11.
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada with a story about leadership.
Once I was downtown, waiting with a group of people for the pedestrian signal to turn green on a street corner. The traffic was a little late, so while the walking signal was still red, one man decided to run across the street. Within seconds, two people followed him, then three, then quickly the whole group. My friend and I though, remained on the corner, feeling almost silly standing there by ourselves. We kind of looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders and sorta of grinned and said “Well, I guess we’re not crowd-followers.” But watching all those people, first one, then two, then four and five, and then the whole group cross the street while the signal was still red, it was the classic example of, “But everybody's doing it!” But we stood alone, happy to wait until the light turned green.
And here’s my point – people love to play “Follow the Leader”, even if it means doing the wrong thing. The world is just waiting for leaders to break the law, trash the standard, and throw caution to the wind; I mean that way, the world's conscience is eased, and people can feel that their wrong actions are justified. It’s the way of the world – and sadly, it’s the way of our country – now that we live in a post-Christian culture. It’s why when it comes to lessons in leadership, I so love Hebrews 11:32 which says, “And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. The world was not worthy of them.”
In Hebrews 11, the Lord right there gives us a roll call of great godly leaders from whom we can draw courage and resolve. And the world was not worthy of David or Gideon, the apostle Paul, Peter, but God tells us to look to them as life examples of true valor and nobility. Those verses in Hebrews 11 show us how righteous people [and I don’t mean self-righteous people], but people who live rightly, people who are honest even when it costs them something; people who bear up under scorn and ridicule without striking back; people who, during tough trials remain patient [and don’t complain] these people are leaders. And they can make a huge difference in this world.
Friend, you know as well as I do that most people nowadays are happy to trash the standard. We live in a world of anti-heroes; a world where bad guys are honored, and good guys are laughed at. It seems as though everybody is not only interested in doing what is right in their own eyes, sadly, even many Christians, the same. Well, give the world around you a godly example to follow. Everyone else may be "doing it," others may follow fallen leaders, but not you. Look for ways you can swim against the tide, go against the grain, and give people something, or I should say, someone to follow! For when you do, you will be in the class of Hebrews 11. You will be in the honorable roll call of people – of leaders – who show great faith, all because, you’ll be showing courage when God’s courage is needed most. That’s your good word today from joniradio.org.
© Joni and Friends