The biggest leap in leadership for me was learning to trust God with my failures. Becoming a Christ follower or even accepting a leadership position does not make us perfect. Wouldn’t that be nice?
Scripture is full of references to the expectation that we are to continue to grow[1], mature[2], be built together[3], and to work out our salvation[4]. My experience tells me that we seldom have growth spurts when we attempt to grow alone or behind a mask of perfectionism.
Here’s a few things I’ve learned from being willing to risk failure.
- I see God’s power made perfect in my weakness
- I learn to recognize God’s voice – sometimes because it wasn’t him speaking
- Others see their value in the team effort
- I’m not stressed over the end results or others perceptions of a project
- I generally learn a lot more from failure than I do from success
- People offer feedback on what they don’t like a lot easier than what they do like and feedback is very helpful in getting to know people
- Failure keeps me humble
All of these things help me to stay focused on God’s sovereignty. When I recognize how much greater he is and how dependent I am on him, that is when I learn to trust him to pick me up and help me to stand again. Each time I trust him, I grow in my ability to trust him with bigger things.
I’d like to walk on water someday. And I think I might be getting closer to that experience with him.
Only let us live up to what we have already attained. Philippians 3:16
2 comments:
You wrote "not stressed over...others' perceptions of a project". A great area of release for me has been to let go of what others think of me in the spiritual arena. I believe that willingness to be misunderstood is a barrier that must be crossed in order for God to use us in other, more significant ways.
Concerning being able to learn from others' (negative!) feedback: When I am able to listen, God so often gives insight into what's really going on and what my role is/is not in the situation.
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