Tag Archives: emotional capacity

Sheep Herders

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This verse is generally perfect when discussing accountability at work or as a bridge to a “take care of your people” writing. Given today’s emotional climate, I’d like to simply focus on shepherding. Looking after the flock is an essential function of leadership, no matter what position we’re talking about. The real issue is how you do it; as a herder you can walk behind them as they walk along the path and keep the strays in line or you can walk in front leading the way knowing that you’ll still have them when you turn around as a Shepherd does. We’re seeing various forms of the shepherd concept of leadership these days. Sheep herders use dogs to chase around the edges to keep the herd moving forward; if you see someone using others to “chase around the edges”, check the leadership style of the people around you.

We need leaders who are looking after us and our needs and who aren’t sending others or themselves out to chase the edges. In a time of crisis, we are ALL leaders and can shepherd people toward calm by being reassuring, direct, honest, and accountable. As a greater society, we owe each other a little bit of personal accountability. Everyone needs to work together so that we can all rise in what now know as the new normal. You could be the next shepherd; will you lead from the back or boldly from the front?

Ezekiel 34:12 “As a Shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all places where they were scattered…”

We are God’s sheep, and it is great to have a Shepherd that cares about us as much as He does. He gave up His son for our salvation and ever lasting life. God is always present in our lives and will come to our rescue, even when we’ve put distance between us. God’s “rescue” does not mean that we will get what we want, it may mean that we get just enough because the real rescue happened on Easter Sunday. We need to do our best and prevent the need for a rescue in the first place. We should be spending time with God, praying, reading the word, and spreading the good news.

Today, more than ever, we need a strong leader. God gave us the perfect one, Jesus. He is patient with us as we make mistakes, He holds us accountable as He did with the disciples but, in the end, no matter how many mistakes we make, Jesus will rescue us (usually from ourselves) as the Shepherd does with His flock. On Easter, we were given the grace of God in the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. While you are focusing on being a good Shepherd in your daily life or in your vocation, focus also on being a good sheep (follower). Rejoice that your Father cares so deeply that He will risk a lot to rescue you from the places that you can scatter to or from all the trials that this world can throw at you.

What’s in your heart?

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God’s intervention in my life seems more apparent to me almost daily. You know the old expression, “when one door closes another one opens” is really the best summary of God at work in our lives. I’ve written a lot about God’s plan because I have seen it unfold in my life pretty often. I have a daily bible verse calendar that contains a phrase to go along with the verse and this one particularly caught my attention – “When your heart is right with God, your ways will follow”. I started thinking about other bible verses that describe how we will act when we have God in our heart and for me, my thoughts always come back to: who’s plan are you executing?

At the urging of my daughter, I’m changing the format of these posts for the mobile app readers out there, because the two-block format doesn’t read well on a cell phone. So, I’m changing my plan. I thought my way was right but with an open mind and a little trust in her, here we go. On the flip side, I have a friend that doesn’t seem to understand how his actions create problems for others. He is well intended but he lacks the emotional capacity to understand that he hurts people when all he does is think and act rationally. He does nothing by emotion and if it’s not his way, then it’s no way. I call it politics and we all do it, everyday.

You know the people at work that you can joke with and those that are all business. You know who can take constructive criticism and who can’t, so you take these into consideration and carefully maneuver through your day using politics. Essentially, you execute your plan. But what happens when your plan doesn’t match with anyone else’s? Usually chaos. People are upset, deadlines are missed, quality suffers and relationships are damaged. This is why when we strive to combine plans by finding common elements,  great things happen. It takes looking beyond your self and trusting in someone else to achieve great things.

“A person may think their own ways are right, but the Lord weighs the heart.” Proverbs 21:2

Have you ever thought what influences you and your decisions? I remind our kids, every so often, of the order of life’s priorities that we used to say when they were small – God, family and everyone else. Tell a teenager that he or she doesn’t come first and wait for the emotions. However, for us, this worked well when friends were becoming a problem but it also helped keep things in perspective for them. We don’t stop and consciously ask ourselves what would God like us to do; although He wouldn’t mind, but our minds consider it as we process decisions if we have put God’s word in there.

A person thinks that they are right; it’s their plan after all so why consider what God thinks. If He wants it changed, He can just change it – right? Hopefully by now you know that isn’t how God works. However, if you have let Him into your heart and into your mind, He will weigh your heart with His words and the examples given to us by our Savior Jesus. We have free will but if we’re in a relationship with God, He will influence our decisions and keep a little calm in our lives. Sure bad things will still happen but we will react to them with much less anxiety that it won’t seem as bad. God has already weighed your heart with great wisdom; simply follow His lead.