Leading Greatness

I love sports movies. That might seem a little odd, since I'm a girl and I can't tell you what offsides means or explain a 2 point conversion. That said, what I love is the inspiration, the discipline, the determination...the process of attaining greatness. Sports movies boil down situations that take years to play out in real life to a microcosm of success and failure.

More often than not, the hero of a sports movie is the coach. Have you ever noticed that? Hoosiers, Miracle, We Are Marshall, Remember the Titans...great stories that happened not because of great players, but because of great coaches. Leaders who dare not focus on the talents of one or two star players, but rather seek to unite a TEAM and bring out the very best that each individual has to offer.

Every person holds within them a measure of greatness. The task before us, as leaders, is to help bring it out.

Do you have a job or a ministry?

Not that one is necessarily better than the other, but clarifying can clear up and prevent frustration. If you have a job, that's fine. But if you have a ministry and approach it like a job, you do a disservice to yourself and the ministry.

A job is at your choice; a ministry is at Christ's call.

In a job you expect to receive; in a ministry you expect to give.

In a job you give something to get something; in a ministry you return something that has already been given to you.

A job depends on your abilities; a ministry depends on your availability to God.

A job done well brings you praise; a ministry done well brings honor to Christ.

~James N. Spurgeon

Longshots

Let's face it. In America, we love an underdog who gets their day. Hoosiers, Seabiscuit, Rudy, Rocky...the list goes on and on. These are movies that cause otherwise rational and reserved people to cry, applaud and cheer in public. I am not ashamed to admit that I am one of these people.  And so it was, as I was watching the Disney movie, Dreamer, that I had an epiphany. Every amazing "longshot" tale begins with a situation that looks utterly hopeless. 

Think about it. Before there can be the cheers of victory there has to be a very real threat of defeat. After all, if there were nothing to overcome in the first place, the experience would have no element of struggle. And it's in the struggle, uncomfortable though it be, that the victory is being shaped. Indeed, the struggle is directly proportionate to the potential outcome. Simply stated, small obstacles lead to small victories, but giant obstacles can precede tales of glory.

Every great thing that has been done had the potential to end very badly. And the trick of it is that people who do great things seldom know they are doing great things. They are simply going through it. 

We all want that amazing moment of victory, but every such moment begins with a decision to look seemingly insurmountable odds in the face and continue to move forward. The journey from a time of difficulty to that triumphant moment when everyone cheers begins with a decision to risk catastrophic failure. When we are willing to risk it all we stand to gain more than we have imagined.