A Legacy Worth Leaving

By Belinda

Once upon a time there was a leader. She led for a long time and knew a few things, or so she thought. Others looked to her for guidance and some even called her their mentor. She was respected; well thought of, and, as she looked towards the few years left before retirement, she turned her thoughts towards the legacy she wanted to leave.

She loved to write and thought that she would surely have enough material for a book on leadership to leave for those who would follow.

One day she woke up to find that she had been in a sort of dream and nothing was as she thought it was. She discovered that she had made many mistakes and had a great deal yet to learn.

"A book on leadership?" she thought, aghast, "What arrogance to think that I had anything to say!"

Instead, she saw clearly, that everything she thought she knew was elementary. She had important things to learn about what it means to be a leader.

Instead of basking in years of rosy reflection and words of wisdom, she wanted to leave behind a different kind of legacy; one borne of example lived out; an example that has at its root, a love that loves others more than self. And she was grateful for years left to do better
 1 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. 2If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. 3-7If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

   Love never gives up.
   Love cares more for others than for self.
   Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
   Love doesn't strut,
   Doesn't have a swelled head,
   Doesn't force itself on others,
   Isn't always "me first,"
   Doesn't fly off the handle,
   Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
   Doesn't revel when others grovel,
   Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
   Puts up with anything,
   Trusts God always,
   Always looks for the best,
   Never looks back,
   But keeps going to the end.
 8-10Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.
 11When I was an infant at my mother's breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.
 12We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
 13But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love. (1 Corinthians 13, The Message)

Comments

Susan said…
This chapter of your book on Leadership is already written in God's heart. And now he's writing it on yours. Can't wait to read the completed manuscript when you're finished getting it down on paper...

P.S. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. There's some pretty awesome stuff in the previous chapters too! Just ask the led...
Mistakes make the best examples, stories and lessons from mistakes are more human, more real and more valuable than stories about successes through - gosh I'm brilliant'. How about two manuscripts one written on the book of life and one written in a book for sale at Chapters.
Belinda said…
If mistakes make the best examples then I feel like I have some big ones. At the moment I'm still working on getting it right. But God has to do that through me. I guess the first step is seeing clearly and the second is stepping up hand in hand with Him.
Anonymous said…
I like that you see that love conquers all and in leadership you can show that it must be first - after of course, God.

Whatever you have written already can be looked at in this manner. So reread and rewrite in this way. You have a loving heart and I am sure that it is showing in this book already.

It also could be the devil making you feel inadequate - you think?
Blessings,
Jan
Marilyn said…
An essential quality of leadership is teachability. The fact that a leader sees how much she doesn't yet know does not negate the value of lessons already learned, however elementary they may seem. Besides, people still need to hear/read/learn the elementals! And writing the elementals in a spirit of humility sounds like the perfect mix.
Belinda said…
Dear Jan and Marilyn, Thank you for the continued encouragement.

I find that humility is the only possibility as God grants clear vision, and teach-ability the only sane response.

Jan, I don't know about the devil, but I do know I am inadequate and I don't think that's necessarily bad. God is adequate and I'm pressing in to him harder than ever.

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