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All leaders face, at one point in their life or another, a piece of news that impacts the direction their career was going. It could be not getting the promotion that you were going for. It could mean getting a poor performance evaluation. It could even mean losing your job. The easiest time to lead, is when you are feeling confident. Decisions come easier, you are more convicted and convincing, and your belief in your cause is un-shakeable. The million dollar question is, what happens to your leadership when your confidence falters?
Before you can answer that question, You need to understand where your confidence was coming from in the first place. I would suggest that if you believe that you were the reason for your perceived success, your approach to your leadership may be slightly different than if your confidence comes from knowing that God has a plan for you, and you are heading in the direction that he has planned.
Where things get a little bit tricky is when you know that God has a plan for you, but your pride gets in the way of letting that plan work out the way God intended. How often have you felt that you deserved something, or that the company or somebody "owed" you something, when things did not turn out the way that you expected? Did you ever stop to think that God knows exactly why you received the news that you did, and if you don't stop complaining, or acting angry, you might miss the opportunity that God is providing you.
Let's consider Jesus for a moment. He received some news from his father that was definitely going to impact his future plans. After hours of prayer, Jesus understood that he was going to have to go through amazing hardship and pain by the hands of strangers. He did nothing to deserve this treatment. He had been a great teacher and healed many people in agony, yet he was told that he was going to have to suffer.
Many things could have gone through his mind. "Do these people know who I am?" "Do they have any idea what I could do to them if I wanted?" "Why is this happening to me?" "I don't deserve this!"
"All I was doing was trying to help people."
All of these complaints would be justified. You could definitely be sympathetic to his situation. The problem is that all of the above statements are prideful. Pride takes place when you think of yourself before others. Pride also happens when you think you are in control of your situation and not God.
Lucky for all of us, Christ decided to walk in faith that the situation that was presented to him was what God wanted to have happen. Although no one can imagine the struggle, betrayal, pain, and anguish Christ went through, the result changed the life of all believers, forever. There could never have been a resurrection, if Christ had fought the circumstance in which God had placed him.
So the next time you are challenged with a set-back, or a disappointment, instead of getting angry, and being prideful, or panicking, walk in faith that God is using this situation for his purpose, and you may find yourself in a place that you never thought possible.
"How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog-it's here a little while, then it's gone. What you ought to say is, "If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that." James 4:14
