Oakwood Church Fresh Start Women's Devotional Encouragement for Today Hartland Delafield

God Bless Us!
By Pamela Blattner

"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves."
Philippians 2:3

When the television program The Apprentice came out, I was fascinated. It made me study leadership in our modern world, especially as we often see power-obsessed people hailed as leaders and put up on pedestals as the ideals of success.

Yet, certainly Jesus was the most effective leader of all time. As God in human flesh, He displayed and promoted an alternative model of leadership: humble service. Mark 10:42-43 says, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant.” I began to think, “Can leaders truly be humble and be ‘empowered’? If Jesus was employed by a large competitive company, would His humility even work in today’s workplace?”

In the January 2001 edition of Harvard Business Review, Jim Collins wrote that he found humility to be central to effective leadership. He described humble leaders in this way:

• Personally humble leaders demonstrate a compelling modesty. They shun public adulation and never boast. They are more interested in the getting the job done than talking about it.
  Personally humble leaders act with calm and quiet determination, not relying on their own charisma to inspire followers but rather use their own values and moral standards to motivate others.
• Personally humble leaders avoid personal ambition in favor of multi-generational growth and development. They desire to see others succeed.
• Personally humble leaders are self-reflective and tend to appropriate blame towards themselves and not others.

During my fundraising years, I learned this similar lesson from a fascinating 100-year-old seasoned saint named Walter, whom I loved. He’d greet everyone with his famous shout of “God Bless Us!” In one of our talks together, Walter said that after his midlife crisis, he’d tried to follow in the footsteps of St. Benedict regarding leadership. St. Benedict wrote a rule to combat leadership pride, and his list started with humility, the fear of God. Walter explained that humility, like leadership, starts and ends with recognizing that God is the ultimate leader. Walter said he learned to lead with his “head bowed down.” Don’t you just love that? God Bless Us!

GOING DEEPER:
1. William Temple said, “Humility does not mean thinking less of yourself than of other people, nor does it mean having a low opinion of your own gifts. It means freedom from thinking about yourself at all.” What leadership position do you have in your home, workplace or church that would benefit today from your leading with your “head bowed down,” focused on the Ultimate Leader?

FURTHER READING:
Proverbs l:7; John 13:12-15

Pam and her husband Richard have two children and two grandchildren. She serves Oakwood through its Family Care Ministry and is Co-Coordinator of Touched Twice Ministries.