Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Sometime in this new year , leadership will come to you. It could be momentary or long term. Big or small. For pay or volunteer. At home, at work, at church.
We may want to do it, or just pray we get through it. Personally, I am reading two books for daily devotions this year. I highly recommend it. For today, Friday, January 3, it offers Psalm 72, which in part says:. Ps This psalm is a prayer for good leadership. It makes me think of the good leaders of the past: including the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr, whose life we remember and celebrate and seek to emulate on January And it makes me hope for the leaders who begin or resume leadership this month, including the new U.
Presidential administration who take office on that same day, January My hope is that all of us who lead, can lead by the ideals of Psalm 72 which goes on to say:. Let [them] defend the needy among the people,. Let [them] come down like rain upon the mown field,. In [their] time may the righteous flourish;. God our ruler, you are the one in whom we place our trust and to whom we are devoted. Grant wisdom and insight to all earthly leaders so they might become reflections of your love to the world.
This prayer is also for us: for me and you. For our leadership. Christ is not only present, fully behind us, and out ahead of us. Christ has called us to these moments of leadership. And by the grace and guidance and presence of the Spirit, we have what we need to lead.
Has God not promised, and will [God] not do it? Has [God] not spoken, and will [God] not fulfill it? Numbers Leaders are human. That includes all of us. We will make mistakes, and we will come up short. Folks we count on to lead us or lead with us will also sometimes fail us.
