Ironically, the fifth devotional from 100 Days of Integrity for Men comes at the end of my first week of being temporarily “in charge” of my team at work, while my boss is on a leave of absence.
It doesn’t appear to be an impossible task, but I’ll say this: this first week, despite starting off with a holiday, has been a really long week.
I’ve never really been a leader, in that I’ve pretty much had to operate as either a one-man-band or an equal member of a team. So this experience is definitely unique.
I realize that if I make bad decisions, they affect the other people on the team. If I give them bad information, I’ll end up leading them astray.
As Christians, we’re in the same boat.
A friend of mine recently told me about her husband being invited to be a deacon at their church. She objected to her husband because he drank the occasional beer with friends. He didn’t get drunk, but he had a beer or wine or a mixed drink.
She felt that this could send a bad message to any church members who saw him in public.
I told her I thought that was a bit of an overreaction: nowhere in the Bible does it say that it’s against God’s wishes to drink. Drinking to excess is a different matter, but just a drink isn’t in and of itself a sin.
But it did lead me to think about the example we set for each other as Christians. In that regard, we’re all supposed to be leaders — even if we’ve had a limited amount of actual leadership experience professionally. How we act does influence other people.
The challenge is to act the way we know is right without making a show of it. The former will leave positive impressions. Even a hint of the latter will do more harm than good.
It makes me wonder to what degree my actions lead people astray — especially if they know I am a Christian. Do my actions always match up to that claim? Am I living like the leader I’m supposed to be?
