About two-thirds of the way through the Bible, there is a two-page short story. The main character displays his most notable leadership traits: rebelliousness, self-righteousness, irreverence, and whining. He is a glimmering example of what not to be.

His name is Jonah.

Jonah's story has many lessons, but a few aspects of his leadership--or lack thereof--stand out. More than anything, Jonah wanted to control the terms of the situation at hand. We might say he had trouble with submission. But despite his attempts to maintain control, he utterly failed.

Control surfaces itself in many ways. Like Jonah, many of us struggle with following through when someone tells us to do something. We don't like the authority someone has over us. We may not trust in the relationship. Or we don't believe in their expertise. In these ways, we try to limit their influence over us. We don't need to rely on anyone but ourselves. And we certainly don't need to take orders from someone else.

This way of leading rarely works. When you follow that example, you undermine your own influence. Self-righteousness causes you to quit learning, which erodes your expertise. It also leads to abusing your power, because power means more to you than it should. Ultimately, you alienate yourself from others because your lack of trust causes people to not trust you. The closer people get to you, the more they feel controlled. And because you always have to be right, people get tired of always being wrong.

Let's contrast Jonah with Jesus.

Philippians 2, my favorite passage in the Bible, shows us a radically different picture of leadership. In that passage, Paul describes how Jesus surrendered everything to fulfill the Father's will. He had total control (equality with God), but he released it for a greater purpose. He trusted his Father in every way:  in the relationship, in God's authority, and in God's wisdom and eternal plan.

We cannot lead as if we are the final authority, the primary relationship, or the ultimate expert. When we lead ourselves and others like that, we--like Jonah--are destined to end the story under a withering fig tree in the hot sun, wondering why things didn't work out as we planned.

But if we follow the example of Jesus, we'll see the great reversal in leadership thinking; we gain power when we release control, we become big through first becoming small, and our leadership should work for God's glory, rather than our own.

 jd

This post was written for The Journey-St. Louis web site, found here: http://journeyon.net