leadership Pain

it has been said,

“A leader’s resilience is determined by their capacity to endure pain.”

Leadership is a lot of things, but among them, leadership is painful

God is all over Exodus 14

He has been flexing the last few chapters with His plagues

Executed for the Egyptians to suffer, and for the Israelites to see

God wanted His people in Egypt, 400 years before and took Joseph there

Now He wants them out of Egypt,

It is His show, always has been, and always will be

You are I, mere bit actors or maybe stagehands in the screenplay of our own lives

God moves on Pharaoh’s heart, Pharaoh mobilizes his army to lock and load

Egyptians with fancy chariots and thoroughbreds charge God’s homeless vagabonds

The Israelites see the Egyptians marching at them, and they “Feared greatly”

I have learned, that fear often makes people mean and causes sheep to bite shepherds

Look at their mean tweets:

“Moses, you have taken us away to die here in the wilderness! You and your “first family”, Pharaoh, Egyptians, that guy, and those people YOU grew up with, TRAITOR!”

“Moses, what have YOU done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Idiotic leadership on full display.”

“Moses, leave us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians. YOUR vision of a preferred future sucks.”

Loyalty questioned, painful

Obedience to God mocked and blamed, painful

Wanting to stay in slavery, instead of living free in a promised land, flowing with milk & honey, painful

Mo’s response?

“Moses said to the people, ‘Fear Not, Stand Firm, and See The Salvation of the Lord.’”

A masterclass in a leader caring more about what the vertical declares than what the horizontal decries

A masterclass in absorbing pain, and moving forward

A masterclass in not taking the cheap, baseless criticisms so much to heart that you quit

Moses leads with “Fear Not”, he knows it is fear underneath their mean tweets

This was way more about them, than him, or his leadership

A masterclass in leadership

My biggest leadership challenge has always been the battle within me, not the battle in front of me

In the span of my professional life, leadership

early on (for me, 90’s and early 2,000’s)

Leadership was Deified

Lately, Leadership has been Demonized

Hopefully, we will get to see Leadership Humanized

Grindforth!..as a humanized leader and following other humanized leaders

Thoughts? Push Back? Snide Remarks? Good Jokes? Just hit reply and email me

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