A room sometimes is a body
With the loneliest view
And the porch lights grow dim
With every on-setting hour
Where the stars seem so finite to you
But love it ain’t like the chemicals babe
Cause the chemicals don’t hang around
While everybody’s drilling for a fountain of youth
Losing years on the way down
A melody can be exhausted babe
Short of friend and fame
Cause the birds they don’t sing
In the winter short of spring
And, even then, they only sing in the day
But love, it ain’t like a melody babe
Cause the birds don’t hang around
Well, everybody’s drilling for a fountain of youth
But sometimes in these fountains they drown
Sometimes in these fountains they drown
But I want to love you
When the blood of my veins
Don’t know how to call out your name
Yeah I want to love you
When the birds don’t hang around
But love it ain’t like the chemicals babe
Cause the chemicals don’t hang around
While everybody’s drilling for a fountain of youth
But sometimes in these fountains they drown
I want first of all…to be at peace with myself. I want a singleness of eye, a purity of intention, a central core to my life that will enable me to carry out these obligations and activities as well as I can. I want, in fact – to borrow from the language of the saints – to live “in grace” as much of the time as possible. I am not using the term in a strictly theological sense. By grace I mean an inner harmony, essentially spiritual, which can be translated into outward harmony. I am seeking perhaps what Socrates asked for in the prayer from the Phaedrus when he said, “May the outward and inward man be one.” I would like to achieve a state of inner grace from which I could function and give as I was meant to in the eyes of God.” –Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift From The Sea (excerpted from Start Where You Are: Catch A Fresh Vision For Your Life, Swindoll, C.)
I am reading the most amazing book by Charles Swindoll right now entitled Start Where You Are: Catch A Fresh Vision For Your Life. The theme is basically about realizing your need for recovery, crying out to God for mercy and allowing Him to heal you. And then after allowing Him ample time to heal you, allowing Him to make a leader out of you. This is something I’ve just really come to grips with in the past few months. Leadership is not something I would have ever chosen for myself, rather it is something that God has instilled in me, and I have now sheepishly and somewhat begrudgingly accepted. If He would have told me this two years ago, I would have laughed in His face. Literally. It was only by allowing these past two years for salvation, regeneration and restoration (in a nutshell: recovery), that I have been able to realize this. And now He won’t let me back down!
Well I won't back down No I won't back down You can stand me up at the gates of Hell But I won't back down
No I'll stand my ground Won't be turned around And I'll keep this world from dragging me down Gonna stand my ground
And I won't back down*
We are living in depraved, desparate times where we need good leadership now more than ever! We have had enough of the deception, the flattery, the greed and the abuse of power that characterizes so many leaders today. And this is not exclusive to the “secular” world or our decaying governmental systems, but extends to the Church!
Today the theme that overrides any other is that of “me first” in blessing, “me first” in terms of material comfort and rewards. The bottom line of the contemporary gospel (the one that does not produce servants) seems to be: grab the crown; avoid the cross.” –Gordon MacDonald (excerpted from Start Where You Are: Catch A Fresh Vision For Your Life, Swindoll, C.)
Charles Swindoll vehemently opposes this! He says good leaders are born out of adversity. Strong leadership grows out of times of great stress and challenge. It produces leaders that operate with honesty, integrity and sincerity. They realize that they sometimes will not have the approval of people, because they will sometimes have to make decisions that are unpopular in order to maintain their integrity. They deny self-interest and the love of things, fame and pleasure in order to serve God and serve the people, not themselves. He uses the Apostle Paul, one of my heroes, as a model. Look at how radically God changed him and grew him to be the father of the Apostolic Church!
I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault. I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. –Phillipians 3:5-7, NLT
So you can see we were not preaching with any deceit or impure motives or trickery. For we speak as messengers approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News. Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our hearts. Never once did we try to win you with flattery, as you well know. And God is our witness that we were not pretending to be your friends just to get your money! As for human praise, we have never sought it from you or anyone else. As apostles of Christ we certainly had a right to make some demands of you, but instead we were like children among you. –1 Thessalonians 2:3-7, NLT
Obviously, I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant. –Galatians 1:10, NLT
I want to be that kind of leader. I want to inspire others to greatness by my single-minded devotion to Christ, my service to others, and a noticeable lack of self-interest. Christ said that in His Kingdom you don’t become great by lording your authority over others, you become great by humbling yourself in service to them.
Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came over and spoke to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want You to do us a favor.” “What is your request?” He asked. They replied, “When You sit on Your glorious throne, we want to sit in places of honor next to You, one on Your right and the other on Your left.”
When the ten other disciples heard what James and John had asked, they were indignant. So Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give His life as a ransom for many.” – Mark 10:35-37;41-45, NLT
I know what’s right
I got just one life
In a world that keeps on pushin' me around
But I'll stand my ground
And I won’t back down
Hey baby, they're ain't no easy way out
Hey I will stand my ground
And I won't back down
*Tom Petty, I Won't Back Down
If I have been of service, if I have glimpsed more of the nature and essence of ultimate good, if I am inspired to reach wider horizons of thought and action, if I am at peace with myself, it has been a successful day. --Alex Noble
