Leading in Time
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength; Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the Lord. (Deut. 6:5; Lev. 19:18)
The first qualification of spiritual leadership is love. God first loved us, so our response to the Lord is only ever ‘I love you too’. But when it comes to your neighbour, you are commanded to take the initiative to love your neighbour as yourself. Peter writes ‘have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart’ (1 Pet. 1:22). And ‘above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins’ (1 Pet. 4:8).
It’s all too common for leaders to lose their first love and view people as a problem, hindrance, or an interruption to their work. But the people are the work. They are God’s handiwork, and He has called us to be shepherds of His flock, not because we must, but because we are willing, as God wants us to be, being examples to the flock (1 Pet. 5:2-3).
So, are you setting an example of love? Are you leading when it comes to love? How courageous are you when it comes to love?
Sincere love demands time. Are you waiting on God daily, listening for his voice, receiving His love into your heart, and allowing the Holy Spirit to set it on fire? “The Sovereign Lord has given me a well-instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed. The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears; I have not been rebellious; I have not turned away.” (Isaiah 50:4-5). Have you turned away? Is your heart rejoicing or rebelling? Will you keep watch one hour each day with the Lord? Are you being rooted and established in love?
Loving one another deeply from the heart requires action. The best use of time is love and the best time to love is now. What does your diary look like for the next few weeks? What if you took a few minutes now to ask the Holy Spirit who you need to spend time within love? No problem to sort, no specific conversation to be had, your only desire to spend time loving that person. Listen deeply to what they say (and crucially: to what they are not saying), ask lots of questions, stay open and curious about all that is important to them. Listen to learn, not simply to respond. Love means being more interested in others than the self-interest of being interesting. Learn to carry one another’s burdens in love.
Courageous love covers a multitude of sins. Everyone makes mistakes, yet our natural tendency is to hide our failures and cover our weaknesses. In any genuine relationships or community, our flaws are only too visible to those around us. Feeling accepted despite our shortcomings is one of the wonderful ways in which we experience genuine love (1 Cor. 13). People need to know they can ask for help when they are struggling and that they will be supported when things go wrong and not rejected for making a mistake.
Leading in love means people feel safe enough to be vulnerable. Vulnerability is one of those qualities we first look for in others but is the last thing we want to show ourselves! Being vulnerable takes courage, but it also takes relationships to a greater depth of love.
There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends (John 15:13).