It occurred to me this morning: many of us don’t feel like we’re called to be leaders and feel a bit insecure when being asked to step up as a leader.
However, one area where we’re all called to leadership is kindness. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think kindness can be performed without leadership.
You can’t be passive and be kind. You can’t just react to things. You can’t just wait for things to happen to you. You certainly can’t be kind if you’re waiting around for others to be kind to you.
Kindness requires leadership. You need to step out and be pro-active in order to show others genuine kindness. It requires focus, attention, often mental and emotional preparation and forethought. It requires standing out in the crowd when the world stays passive in their indifference and reactionary criticism.
Kindness involves guiding people with grace when they’re stuck and need to be pulled out of whatever mess the world has them in. It requires leadership to notice strangers. To speak warm words of greeting to people you’d normally ignore.
It certainly requires leadership to love your enemy or those you’re at odds with. It requires leadership to forgive, to humble yourself and make the first move toward reconciliation.
Now, being a leader usually means you have followers. But, leadership begins with invitation. And what has more potential to invite others to be kind than kindness?
So if you’re like me and feel out of your depth at times when asked to step up as a leader, remember that every time you exercise kindness toward others, you’re leading others into the light of God’s grace.
Finally, the best leaders are also followers, which gives me hope in this area, since I so often fail at being kind. I actually have a chance at living a life of kindness when I follow heaven’s supreme leader of love and sacrifice.
About John Michalak
An author, speaker, musician, and minister, John Michalak has spent more than 25 years equipping others in the areas of life-change and personal relationship. John’s inspirational new book, 365 Devotions To Embrace What Matters Most is now available from Zondervan publishing.
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