Life hurts

I reckon Life sometimes feels a bit like this. There is this chaos and disruption around us. Life hurts and we feel battered and bruised. It leaves us numb, expressionless. Blow after blow keeps coming at us and we just have to stand and take it. Life hurts. Following Jesus is tough. Ministry is difficult. Leadership means pushing forward, challenging the way things are and reaching for the new. It involves change. People are not passive to change. They either grasp it with two hands or resist it with feet placed firmly in concrete blocks. It inevitably causes conflict as some join the path and others decide that it is not the route for them.

Leadership within this context is not about task, or process but about love. When the world leaves us numb the challenge is to regain feeling. Numbness occurs after pain becomes too much. Our receptors shut down. Regaining feeling does not mean dwelling on the pain but re-imagining the world, reminding ourselves of the need to love. Leadership is a relational task. It is based on trust. When we are battered and bruised. When it all feels too much then we love even more. Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always peseveres

We are to come after Jesus. To pick up our cross each day. To follow. We are never promised that it will be easy. It willl inevitably involve struglle and hardship, but also joy and the beauty of a community growing together.