I’m currently following a little more than a hundred folks on Twitter, with – oddly enough – a similar number following me. Which begs the question – why would anyone follow me on Twitter?
Self-deprecation aside, there are some interesting leadership nuggets and faith-based nuggets that pop up – especially among the large church leaders and pastors I follow. I’m still chewing on this piece (it was in a couple of back-to-back tweets) from Mark Driscoll at Mars Hill Church in Seattle:
Men are the dominant presence in their home for life or death. They need to humbly but boldly lead their family. Men sin by being bullies or cowards. The bullies sin by commission, pushing the family around, the cowards sin by omission not doing their job.
This is a tough one, because I think as husbands and fathers we tend to drift towards one or the other. Some of us swing from one to the other depending on the situation, while others of us tend to park ourselves in one of the corners. It’s difficult for us to strike the proper balance to humbly and boldly lead without becoming a coward or a bully.
It all goes back to Ephesians 5:21-33 – it begins there – with 9 verses aimed at men. If we love our wives the way Jesus loves His Church, if we love our wives as much as we love our own bodies, then we would lovingly and boldly serve our wives – and by extension, our families. We would be willing to give up more than what we receive – because we are called to more.
I continue to be challenged in this regard daily. There are days where I am the coward – but regrettably, there are probably more days where I’m pushing the family around. Checking the anger…checking the ego…is no easy proposition.
Can I reach that middle ground, to humbly and boldly lead? Yes – because I’ve done it before.
I just need to do that every day.
