How would you respond if someone told you today, “Listen, I can’t give you details, but just know that the next few years are going to be tough for you as a leader. You will face some difficult challenges. There will be ugly moments. I’ll check back later”
How would you respond? I would ask for details. Will I be raked over by blogs? Am I going to have to be maligned?…take a pay cut? Could you please tell me what exactly is coming?
Leadership Means Difficulty
When Paul was on his way to Jerusalem, he told the Ephesian elders that he had some hard news. “And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me” (Acts 20:22–23).
Paul, much like Jesus before him, had set his face towards Jerusalem. He knew that being called to the gospel would bring danger and difficulties. But he went anyway. Paul had a sense for the ending; he just didn’t know how it would happen.
Here’s the thing. If you are called to lead, you too will face difficulty.
Why does God tell Paul there’s difficulty up ahead? Why does God want us to know that difficulty will accompany the fulfillment of our call?
Leadership Sacrifices Comfort
If we’re honest, we know our natural tendency is to seek the least challenging way. At least I do. I often want to eliminate risk, eradicate cost, and keep difficulties at bay. But leadership calls us to pick up the cross, not a recliner. God promises that all who follow Christ will meet trial and tribulation (John 16:33; James 1:2–3). Like Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress, it’s all part of the journey. Wouldn’t it be nice if Paul said in Acts 20:23, “I only know that hotels and Jacuzzis await me.” I wish. Instead he says, “I only know that imprisonment and afflictions await me.”
If you want to glorify God through your call, prepare for difficulties. God has a unique design in them. Sometimes they’re life preservers. Difficulties, after all, strip down and violate our comforts. They refamiliarize us with what really matters. Coming to terms with difficulties rescues us from the distraction of trying to follow Christ and seek comfort at the same time.
One of the ways our great prosperity in the West fails to serve leaders is that it makes comfort more achievable. We have comfort food, Select Comfort beds, even Comfort Inns. Type “comfort” into a search engine and you’ll get the Comfort House, an entire store that styles itself as “The Source for Products That Make Your Life Easier.” Only in America.
The path of leadership does not lead you to Comfort House. It demands that you sacrifice the little comforts of this life—your Sunday mornings, your dream home, the lucrative career step that moves you away from fruitful ministry—to pour out your life as a sacrifice for the sake of eternal joy, both for you and others.
In a world which demands that leaders pour themselves out for worldly success, leading might be costly. You will probably disappoint a lot of people. You may not be as well-liked. You might even lose the wrong ministry until you find the right one.
Don’t fall prey to the temptation to mitigate difficulty by compromising on what matters. Writing later to Timothy, Paul said, “I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:7–8).
Difficulties lie ahead. For those who are faithful, so does a crown. Look to the coming of the Lord, then lead boldly and wisely.
Questions
What cravings for comfort are keeping you from stepping forth boldly to pursue a godly ambition? How does the promised return of the Lord Jesus relativize those cravings?
Prayer
Lord, I pray that you would give me boldness to pursue those things that you call me to do that I tend to shrink from. Help me, like Paul, to look to your grace, deny what will compromise me and accept the sacrifices that attend this call.
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash
