LEADERS ARE MERCIFUL

As a leader you are called upon to be actively gracious and compassionate toward the well-being and peace of others through acts of favor and mercy – even to those who do not desire or deserve it.

“How Can I Possibly Treat This Person?”

Unaware that she was Jewish, Dr. Renate Justin’s new patient, at one point of her medical examination, began to spew her venomous and hideously evil views about the “Minderwertigen” (“scum” – “low downs”) – that is, Jewish people who, as far as she was concerned, “…got what they deserved.” According to Dr. Justin’s patient, they deserved to be eliminated from the “Vaterland;” they deserved hard labor, starvation, and even the gas chamber.

As Dr. Justin gathered the medical history on her new patient she discovered that this new patient was German. Her husband had died fighting for Hitler; her son was a zealous member of the Hitler Youth; and, her role during the war was to supervise Jewish slave laborers.

How was Dr. Justin to explain to her venomous patient that she was Jewish? How could she tell her that she was, as her patient described it, “low-down scum,” that her father had been in a concentration camp, and that many of her relatives died in the gas chambers?

Dr. Justin rightfully felt as if she had been viciously assaulted, which led to a major dilemma. How could she possibly treat this person? How could she be a good physician to her? More than that, how could she be a compassionate, merciful physician? Her patient was suffering from chronic emphysema. She was losing the ability to breathe in and out.

And yet, in that moment, she was reminded of the words of the Torah, “Let compassion breathe in and out of you, filling you with singing.” These words reminded her that, even though her patient’s behavior was worthy of judgment, she could not stifle her own nature – her obligation – to show compassion. Amazingly, Dr. Justin offered to treat the new patient.

You see, Dr. Justin chose to her created capacity, as a bearer of God’s image, to be compassionate to others, extending undeserved favor and mercy toward their well-being and peace. Though Dr. Justin reserved the right to refuse treatment to any patient, she became an “angel of undeserved mercy,” even to this venomous patient who did not deserve it – even to those who hated and despised her.

“It Is an Attribute of God Himself”

This capacity to be merciful is an attribute of God given to you in the creation. William Shakespeare captured the essence of this created attribute in his comedy, The Merchant of Venice (1597?) The villain is the moneylender, Skylark. Antonio, the protagonist, has defaulted on a loan. Skylark, who is offended and wounded, is not only seeking repayment, he is also out for vengeance. So, in payment for his loan, he demands a literal pound of Antonio’s flesh. Skylark’s heart is hard and becomes incapable of extending any mercy toward Antonio.

In Act 4, Scene 1, Portia, the heroine disguised as a lawyer, speaks these famous words to Skylark as the court gathers to render judgment:

The quality of mercy is not strain’d,

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven

Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;

It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:’

Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes

The thronèd monarch better than his crown;

His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,

The attribute to awe and majesty,

Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;

But mercy is above this sceptred sway;

It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings,

It is an attribute to God himself;

And earthly pow’r doth then show likest God’s

When mercy seasons justice.

Therefore, Jew,

Though justice be thy plea, consider this,

That, in the course of justice, none of us

Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;

And that same prayer doth teach us all to renderdeeds of mercy. [i]

Portia tried to persuade Skylark that mercy is as much of a benefit to the one who grants it as it is to the one who receives it, pleading, “It blesseth him that gives and him that takes,” emphasizing, “It is an attribute of God himself.”
Ephesians 2:4-7 (ESV)

Practicing Merciful Leadership

Let’s go one step further. You are to be merciful just as God is merciful: “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36, ESV). Just as God acted in response to the plight of His children, you also are to act mercifully toward those who are in need – especially to those who, in your mind, do not deserve it. After all, God loved you even while you were his enemy.

Responding to the needs of others is your opportunity to cultivate this created attribute. It is your opportunity to actively bear God’s image – to be like your Creator and Father. Jesus affirmed this truth so simply – yet so powerfully to His disciples on a mountainside, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy” (Matthew 5:7, ESV).

Leaders are Merciful

Mercy is a created leadership attribute. Effective leaders are often called upon to graciously and actively extend undeserved favor and mercy toward the well-being and peace of others. As such it becomes a core leadership trait. As a leader in your home, church, workplace, and community, how will you exercise this key leadership attribute this week – today?

Claiming and cultivating this attribute begins by remembering that it is because of God’s rich mercy that you are able to enjoy extending mercy to others. You fill the earth with the glory of God by reflecting this God-given attribute, mercy, to God and to your neighbors in everything you do and every place you go – your home, your work, your church, and your community. You are to extend mercy, as created leaders, to every one you encounter.

The practice of mercy – identifies you with God.

The practice of mercy – marks you as an effective leader.

The practice of mercy – fills the earth with God’s glory.

You are merciful. You are a leader. This is the truth about leadership! This is the Genesis Principle of Leadership.

Now go out and lead!

[i] Shakespeare, William, The Merchant of Venice, 1597?

LEADERS ARE LOVING

As a leader you possess the ability to love and be loved. By divine nature, calling, and duty, you are to love God and others at all times by doing what is best for them and practicing forgiveness.

Leaders are loving!

I know what you’re thinking: “Love my employees in the 21st century? What are you thinking? Tough times call for tough leaders – emotionless, cold, calculating, commandeering, aggressive, cigar-chomping, fire-breathing dragons! This is a new day – a new age – there’s no room for this touchy-feely-loving stuff in the 21st century! There’s no place for loving leadership today! Why, we’ll go under! You don’t realize what it takes to be a leader these days!”

Browse through the business section of your favorite bookstore and you’ll find similar sentiments reflected in many of the books on leadership. Such books claim to house the one irreplaceable factor or formula for leading successfully. But, astonishingly, many end up promoting this sort of take-charge, aggressive, emotionless style of leadership.

Yes – I agree – courageous, focused, determined, and hard-working leaders are needed in the 21st century organization. Dozens of organizations collapse every day for the lack of effective leaders. But as Christopher Loving, Founder and President of LIFT (Loving Institute for Tomorrow), observed in his on-line audio book,

We can no longer afford to graduate bright, talented, and competent lawyers, architects, and marketing executives. Today, the world needs leaders who not only have great minds, but great hearts as well.[i]

The notion of loving leadership is an ancient paradigm – a very old – but time-tested prescription for effective leadership. It may surprise you to learn that loving leadership is actually a biblical model. It is God’s model. The principle of loving leadership is just as effective in the 21st century as when God first came up with the idea. God created you to love and to be loved. It is your divine calling and duty to love God and others at all times. You are to regard others more highly than you regard yourself, to do what is best for them, and, when necessary, practice forgiveness.

Loving leadership requires recognizing God as the supreme model of love. During an interview, a reporter asked Karl Barth, the famous theologian, what was his most remarkable theological discovery. After a few moments of reflection Barth responded, “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” Karl Barth, unlike few other people, had explored the depths and riches of the knowledge of God. After all was said and done, Barth understood a simple truth, God is love. Children of all ages have proclaimed in song and in good works this simple, but profound, reality, God is the emphasis and perfection of love. Indeed, it is a truth revealed to mankind throughout the Bible. God is the fountain of love. God created you to love and be loved.

Truly effective leaders love God. You are to be obedient to God’s first and great command: “And he said to them, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment’” (Matthew 22:37-38, ESV). Every beat of your heart, the inner-most depths of your soul, and every microscopic neuron of your mind is to focus, pursue, and engage this loving God. Love God with every fiber of your being. Why? Because God always treats you better than you deserve. As the famous Puritan preacher Thomas Watson observed, “If ice melts, it is because the sun has shone upon it; so if the frozen heart melts in love, it is because the Sun of Righteousness has shone upon it.”[ii]

Leaders are commanded to love others with the same degree of passion and potency that God has loved them. Jesus Christ, after stating that your obligation to respond to God’s love is with love for God, added, “And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:39, ESV). Knowing and experiencing God’s love carries with it certain obligations – obligations that are summarized by Jesus himself. Imagine – the whole of the Bible boils down to just to two profound points – 1) love God 2) love others.

Because love is part and parcel of your created nature, love is a permanent component of your leadership arsenal and is to be employed at all times. Love is at the epicenter of everything you do in every arena of your leadership life – no matter what you endeavor to accomplish. Whether you are fetching a cup of coffee, moving mountains, resurrecting a dead company, or offering yourself up to be burned at the stake, love is the central, driving force for effective leadership. In the final analysis, you can accomplish nothing; you are nothing; and, you gain nothing outside the context of love.

Leaders regard others more highly than they regard themselves. I call this the “Philippian Principle of Leadership.” “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourself.” (Philippians 2:3, ESV). A lot is said these days about the concept of “servant-leadership.” Sometimes the discussion of servant-leadership can grow complex and confusing. Nevertheless, there is one principle that must emerge in any biblical definition of servant-leadership: effective leaders must love in the same way Christ loves those He leads. Loving leaders do not expect their subordinates to make them look good; loving leaders always regard their subordinates more highly, more significantly, than they regard themselves. Following the example of Jesus, loving leaders humble themselves, make themselves nothing, and take on the form of a servant – elevating those around them – looking to the interests of others. Loving leaders are determined to do what it takes to make their subordinates look good.

Loving leadership is a difficult challenge – especially when a leader is forced to make a choice between what others “want” and what is “best.” Too often, because of a desperate need to be liked, you might be tempted to acquiesce to another person’s wants, in the vain hope that they will “love” you. Or, perhaps, you actually fear that they will not love you in return. Later, unfortunately, you will discover, the hard way, that caving in did not produce the kind of results you were hoping for. Perhaps, the best guideline – or rule of thumb – is Jesus’ words: “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets” (Matthew 7:12, ESV).

You are loving.

You are a leader.

This is the truth about leadership!

This is the Genesis Principle of Leadership.

Now go out and lead – in His image!

[i] Loving, Christopher J., Loving Leadership: Rekindling the Human Spirit to Business, Relationships, and Life, Listen and Live Audio, Inc. http://www.audible.com/, 1996.

[ii] Watson, Thomas, Body of Divinity Contained in Sermons Upon the Assembly’s Catechism, Westminster Shorter Catechism Project, http://www.bpc.org/resources/watson/wsc_wa_049-052_b.html.

LEADERS ARE FREE AND RESPONSIBLE

As a leader you possess the ability to independently make meaningful choices, the freedom to act upon your choices, and the personal responsibility for the consequences of your decisions and actions.

What are you to do when you are in a tight spot?

Every day, in every arena of your life, you are faced with making choices. Fortunately, most choices are small and seemly unimportant: What color of socks shall I wear today? What shall I order for lunch? What movie shall I watch?

From time to time you face much larger, more challenging decisions: Who shall I marry? Should I treat my cancer with chemo or radiation? Or shall I treat it at all? Do I really want to abide by my dying spouse’s living will?

Life is filled with making choices and managing the consequences of those choices. Indeed, every decision entails assuming the responsibility for how that choice impacts your own life and the lives of those around you.

Your ability to make decisions comes from God. The Creator equipped you with the freedom to make choices (both small and large) and has granted you full responsibility for those choices. In fact, God expects you to make decisions – and to be fully responsible for the consequences of your decisions.

Regrettably, the conventional wisdom of the day would have you believe that you are a helpless victim – incapable of making decisions for yourself. The modern view of personhood would have you believe that you are the product of and are helplessly bound to the fatalistic environmental chains of familial circumstances, the random roll of the genetic dice, the press of the culture, and uncontrollable socioeconomic factors. Or, if there is a God, you are crippled by the pre-determination of a merciless, uncaring deity. In other words, you are but a victim of your genetics and/or your environment. Consequently you either expect someone else (parents, teachers, governmental agencies, physicians, health insurance companies, or others) to make your decisions or you expect someone else to take responsibility for your decisions. After all, it was someone else’s fault for your choice anyway!

The biblical view about decision-making is quite different. You were created in the image of God. You possess most of God’s attributes. God not only gave you the ability to make your own choices, He also gave you the freedom and responsibility to make choices. You have the capacity to act – or not to act – to do this or that and to perform deliberate actions on your own responsibility. Or as Rabbi Shimon Apisdorf expressed it, you are …shapers, creators, and captains of great ships of potential … with the capacity to express in one’s life those values and ideals which stem from the essence of the human soul.[i]

Far too many people are crippled by indecision, irrationality, and unwarranted emotionally-laden judgments. Too many people experience unnecessary paralysis in their decision-making. You are not a mindless robot. You are not destined to live reflexively, mindlessly reacting to relentless genetic and environmental stimuli bombarding you. God has given you the capacity to make choices. You are a free moral agent. You possess the freedom to choose. You possess the independent freedom to act upon, or not to act upon, your impulses. Although every fiber of your being conspires to force a particular decision upon you, God has given you the capacity and the freedom to choose otherwise. Faced with a choice between good and evil, you are free to choose either. But you are responsible for the proper use of your God-given capacity to choose and take responsibility for your decisions.

Effective leaders exercise their freedom to choose to act or not to act. Effective leaders take full responsibility for the consequences of their choices, good or bad, on their life and the lives of others. Effective leaders are accountable for how this created attribute, free and responsible, has been carried out. Yes, there is a price, both immediate and future, for the exercise of this great gift of free and responsible leadership. As free moral agents, leaders know they are responsible, that is accountable, for every one of their actions – small and large. In other words, leaders choose wisely and act responsibly.

You are free and responsible.

You are a leader.

This is the truth about leadership!

This is the Genesis Principle of Leadership.

Now go out and lead!

[i] Apisdorf, Rabbi Shimon, “Freedom and Responsibility,” AISH.com, retrieved from the internet on August 10, 2006.