7. A loving father Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you for your role in my life: for your leadership, faithfulness, love, mercy, compassion and understanding. Help me each day to walk humbly with you, to not lose sight of you amongst the busy distractions of life. Thank you when I do, that you receive me back again with love and joy. Amen.
Notas del editor
God our leader . I focussed on both aspects of the theme of the week, and I just want to share some of my thought process as it relates to me and my life. I’ll share my ideas on the Bible verse and then discuss “God our leader” and attempt to tie them together at the end.
Anonymous poem. Extract from a poem in a daily devotional book I have. It paraphrases well I think, the spirit of the verse.
Is he? I’ll come back to this in a moment. What is a leader? How does one become one? A leader by definition is someone who others want to follow; if there are no followers, then arguably there is no leader. Unless you are a dictator who enforces his will on others, in order to be a leader then others must choose to follow you – out of inspiration, respect, admiration, a common purpose, belief in your vision, etc. It links back to Gwen Prosser’s point: God our Keeper – he can only be keeper of what we give into his keeping. What makes a good leader? Rudolph Giuliani, one-time mayor of NYC during the time of 9/11, had advice for would-be leaders: one suggestion was to “under promise and over deliver”. Often leadership implies movement of some sort, a journey. Ultimately a good leader for me is someone who I believe will take me where I want to go. They inspire trust – in their integrity, their faithfulness. They are fair and just. They have a vision or ideal that inspires me. They affirm me. They inspire me and make me want to be like them. To me God is all these things. Unlike human leaders God doesn’t need to take Mayor Giuliani’s advice – because he is unchangingly faithful, just – and he is the only one who can take me where I want to go.
Anonymous poem. A good leader sets a good example for his followers.
God’s credentials as a leader (compared with human leaders). When I stop and think about it, it’s a no-brainer.
Is God my leader? Personally, if I’m honest, I have to answer “not all the time”. One of the biggest challenges/problems/paradoxes in my faith life is that on the one hand I believe all the things I’ve mentioned about God. On the other hand I’m not as consistent a follower as I’d like to be. Sometimes I go days or even weeks and forget to pray. Sometimes I get busy and later on find myself thinking, “Gee, I haven’t thought about God much lately and I’ve really let him be crowded out of my life”. So often I feel that in my faith life I’m taking slow steps forward and then every now and then one giant step back. I like this picture. Child following parent in a busy place and getting distracted analogy.
A loving father. When I stray, when I get off track, get busy, get distracted, lose touch with what’s most important...when I become “lost” and back track or wander in search of my Father, he’s that father looking for his lost son. To me in a less extreme version I find myself in the shoes of the prodigal son over and over. When I feel that reunion with my Father, there’s no recrimination, no lecture, no berating – only his understanding, and mercy and love, and his joy that I have returned. Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you for your role in my life: for your leadership, faithfulness, love, mercy, compassion and understanding. Help me each day to walk humbly with you, to not lose sight of you amongst the busy distractions of life. Thank you when I do, that you receive me back again with love and joy. Amen.