Here’s a few thoughts I learned from my weekly bible study focused on learning leadership from the Bible. Last Friday we studied chapter 4 of Nehemiah. The book of Nehemiah is the story of how a cup bearing servant to a King led men, women and children to rebuild a massive wall in the Holy Land of Jerusalem.
Here’s what I learned:
We can do everything we can, but ultimately God is the one doing it.
We might give our best effort as leaders, but we need God’s help too!
Time and time again, Nehemiah proves himself to be an incredible planner.
This is evident in so many passages in Nehemiah. Mainly when the King asks him for his vision of the holy city.
It’s ok to be angry when God’s cause is challenged.
Appropriately displaying anger is tough to discern, but there seems to be several times where Nehemiah became angry. Nehemiah was often angered when the local political leaders of the city tried to challenge his vision and discourage his people.
At times you’re going to need ditch diggers.
At times while building the wall, Nehemiah had to request certain men to do building, and others to be warriors to defend the wall. I think this showed that at times you have to summon your team to do things that they don’t want to do, and to do things that they know aren’t in there “strength zone.” But there will be seasons in life where you’re just going to have to ask your team to be “ditch diggers” and do the hard work for a limited time.
Momentum can disappear fast.
Chapters 4, 5 and 6 all seem to reveal lots of problems, issues, and challenges arising. The worst part is that most of them happen pretty close to the same time: when the wall has barely halfway completed. Lots of problems arriving at the same time can cause momentum to stall.
Every Friday morning I meet with five men for coffee. We work through books of the Bible to draw out leadership lessons and leadership principles. As a way to share with you what I’m learning, I hope to share more of my Leadership Take Away’s from those meetings.
