My Story

I feared God and I was plagued by guilt.  It seemed that I could never do enough, or the right things, to please God.  I was driven to achieve perfection in everything.  There were so many rules, conditions, and other unattainable criteria I thought that God demanded before He would love me. 


When I met the real Christ Jesus, I discovered the truth about God's loving forgiveness through the scriptures and through my new relationship with His Son.


Now I live free of guilt and confident of who I am.  But of greatest importance, I know who God is and I know that He loves me even though I am still a sinner.

"And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."  (John 8:32)

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Follow The Leader

Driving to work one day I found myself behind a plain old white truck.  Nothing significant about this truck, no signs or markings to indicate that this truck was employed by any business or public enterprise.  I mention this because on this truck's rear tailgate was a bumper sticker which read "You Are Following The Leader".  I was immediately put-off by the implication of the bumper sticker's message which seemed to imply that just because this vehicle was in front of me that it, therefore, appointed itself as my leader, ergo, I was its follower.  The audacity of this to think that just because of some ironic happenstance, perhaps by the "Traffic Gods", that because of a purely random physical alignment of vehicular movement, I was now designated as a follower to some self-designated leader.

For the record, I thought, just because someone is in front of me does not make that one a leader no more than does my location behind make me a follower.  Physical positioning does not automatically equate to a position of leadership or of subservience.  As it happens through normal flow of traffic I soon found myself abeam to this plain old white truck in the other lane.  I asked myself, are we now in a peer-to-peer relationship?  And as I pulled ahead of this truck did I suddenly become the new leader of a pack of two?

Just because people (vehicles in this instance) are moving in the same direction at any point in time does not mean that they are headed to the same objective or motivated through a bonding sense of unity.  Physical hierarchy, whether appointed or arbitrarily arranged, does not necessarily correlate to a leader/follower relationship.  True leaders do not get the luxury to appoint their followers, however, it is the followers that determine whom their leaders will be!

In  retrospect, do not these same leader/follower principles apply on the roads through life in our personal and professional relationships?  Let's examine various "assigned" positions of authority / leadership, such as the President of our country, or as the Pope of the Catholic Church, or as a school principal, or even as a parent.   Even though all of these positions are deemed ones of leadership by society, the place-holders throughout time do not always gain the respect as leaders from their respective followers - to say the least.  Think about this: Does any President of the United States garner the respect from all of the citizens - not!  Do all Catholics follow the dictum extolled by the Pope - not!  If all school principals were true leaders would we expect to experience the ever-increasing amount of strife, resistance and behavior problems from the student body - not!  And do all offspring actually follow in the footsteps of their parents - not!  My point, again, is that one in a leadership position does not necessarily make that one a leader no more than does a plain old white truck in front of you make you a follower of it.

Leadership is earned, not decreed, not appointed, not elected, not inherited, and certainly not self-imposed.  There are huge philosophical differences between being a "boss" versus being a "leader". 

How about yourself?  Where do you or I fit in?  Are we leading anyone, intentionally or otherwise?  As Christians we are challenged first to lead by example, to live our lives that reflects the love, mercy and grace exhibited by Jesus Christ.  How do we measure-up to Jesus' standards of leadership?  

Also as Christians we must first learn to follow before we can expect to become effective leaders.  At least we have a leader to which we can try to emulate; One that has has shown us the way, the truth, and the life!  And totally contrary to the world's standards whereby one measurement of success is determined by how many followers one has amassed, under God's Kingdom our success is measured by how we lead others to become followers of Christ Jesus.

So, when you find yourself on your daily commute along life's many roads, look in front of you to see who really it is you are following.  Next look in the rear-view mirror to see if anyone is actually following you.  And if you are following or if you have followers, do you know where you are headed?

Remember, if you are not leading or if you are not following then perhaps you are just driving a plain old white truck lost on the road to salvation. 



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