The burdens of leadership
The burdens of leadership
Was reading Numbers 11:1-15 and am reminded about the burdens we all face as leaders of God's flock.
The account in Numbers recorded how the Israelites were filled with complaints at all the hardships they felt they had to go through when they escaped from Egypt on the way to the Promised Land. They had complained about the journey ... they had complained about water ... they had complained about food ... they had complained about their leadership ... they had complained about practically anything and everything. Now before we point all our fingers at them and labelled them as ingrates, in a similar manner, many of us are like that too - we look at them and were filled with anger at how they can react in such ways to a patient, loving God - we are very often like them too!
In this narrative, Moses was feeling the strain of leadership and the burdens he felt he had to carry as the leader of this mass of people. It came to a point where he felt "enough is enough!" and he just wanted so much to end all the agony he had felt while dealing with the constant nonsense created by the masses. Numbers 11:15 tells us that Moses had come to a point where he was just seconds away from throwing the towel in.
As I read about how Moses had felt, it began to dawn on me that sometimes as leaders, we felt the strain and burden which hit Moses too - well, perhaps not that intense because there's no way we can fully identify with what Moses had went through as the leader of a massive people. Yet in similar manner, we had felt that we are carrying the burdens of leadership on our own ... we are handling the people's business on our own ... we are dealing with the demands and requests of people on our own ...
I guess we often forget that we are merely the human instruments God had appointed, so that He can work through us - and instead of being reminded that we are instruments, we subtly creep into the commander role, which is God's place alone. As such, we find ourselves attending to all things, everything, and when everything just rise over our neck and heads, we feel really strained, burdened, weak, weary, tired, discouraged ... and the list goes on.
If we can only remember that we are God's instruments, and the one carrying the burdens of these responsibilities is God Himself, who will equip us with strength and all that we need to deal with what He has given to us. Very often, we fail to allow God to take over as well, and "suppress" or "bypass" the commander and carry everything ourselves.
Moses felt the strain ... and as leaders, we often felt the strain of leadership too. We need to look back, look to, look up - to the One who's carrying the burdens and ask Him to use us as instruments, to steer us in the way He would ... and not steering our own directions and using our own strengths.
Was reading Numbers 11:1-15 and am reminded about the burdens we all face as leaders of God's flock.
The account in Numbers recorded how the Israelites were filled with complaints at all the hardships they felt they had to go through when they escaped from Egypt on the way to the Promised Land. They had complained about the journey ... they had complained about water ... they had complained about food ... they had complained about their leadership ... they had complained about practically anything and everything. Now before we point all our fingers at them and labelled them as ingrates, in a similar manner, many of us are like that too - we look at them and were filled with anger at how they can react in such ways to a patient, loving God - we are very often like them too!
In this narrative, Moses was feeling the strain of leadership and the burdens he felt he had to carry as the leader of this mass of people. It came to a point where he felt "enough is enough!" and he just wanted so much to end all the agony he had felt while dealing with the constant nonsense created by the masses. Numbers 11:15 tells us that Moses had come to a point where he was just seconds away from throwing the towel in.
As I read about how Moses had felt, it began to dawn on me that sometimes as leaders, we felt the strain and burden which hit Moses too - well, perhaps not that intense because there's no way we can fully identify with what Moses had went through as the leader of a massive people. Yet in similar manner, we had felt that we are carrying the burdens of leadership on our own ... we are handling the people's business on our own ... we are dealing with the demands and requests of people on our own ...
I guess we often forget that we are merely the human instruments God had appointed, so that He can work through us - and instead of being reminded that we are instruments, we subtly creep into the commander role, which is God's place alone. As such, we find ourselves attending to all things, everything, and when everything just rise over our neck and heads, we feel really strained, burdened, weak, weary, tired, discouraged ... and the list goes on.
If we can only remember that we are God's instruments, and the one carrying the burdens of these responsibilities is God Himself, who will equip us with strength and all that we need to deal with what He has given to us. Very often, we fail to allow God to take over as well, and "suppress" or "bypass" the commander and carry everything ourselves.
Moses felt the strain ... and as leaders, we often felt the strain of leadership too. We need to look back, look to, look up - to the One who's carrying the burdens and ask Him to use us as instruments, to steer us in the way He would ... and not steering our own directions and using our own strengths.
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