Doing the Right Thing

Doing the Right Thing

How come we do what is right, do what is proper, and do it kindly, yet we still feel guilty afterwards.

Some things are just sent to try us!

As my wife says, “Being a leader ain’t all that and a piece of cake!” We all celebrate when that job comes along. The job goes well, really well, and despite all the pessimism thrown at the project, everyone pats us on the back and says “Well done.” Yet there are moments along the way when we wish we had never heard of the wretched job, and certainly we wish we hadn’t ‘won’ it.

You see, a leader is out on a parapet to be shot at – justly or unjustly. There are those just waiting to pull the leader down; perhaps even crucify him, just because he is the leader. There are those who gather around the new leader with all the advice he will ever need about how to do his job. They want it done their way. They don’t want change. They don’t want anyone else’s plans to succeed. They only want for their own advice to be followed to the letter and thereby grab some boasting rights when there is success anywhere to be found.

Yet woe betide that leader should any tiny thing go wrong. Despite any advice they may have given, despite any help they may have offered, often despite and finance they may have put in to help, the critics throw all the success away and tear the leader to shreds for one tiny aberration.

Perhaps this is why the only real advice the Bible gives us for leaders is to remind us that God put them there in the first place, for whatever reason, and then to command us to pray for our leaders. I have always found that the most advice comes from those who would not touch the job with a barge-pole. God always chose leaders who could take the flak and the criticism and who would lean upon Him when the going got tough. 2 Peter 5:7 is a pretty good motto. “Cast all your burdens upon Him because He cares for you.”

This is why we still need to pray for our leaders. We need to respect their office even if we have little respect for them personally, and we need to pray for all those in authority over us – no matter their colour, race, creed, political or social alignment.

Sure it’s hard, but who promised that being a Christian was ever going to be easy?