Walking With God Straight Into Rain (Part 1)

Scripture — Genesis 6:6-9 (NRSV)

And the Lord was sorry that he had made humans on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, “I will blot out from the earth the humans I have created—people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air—for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the sight of the Lord. These are the descendants of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God.

Devotion

I recently built some garden boxes and had a large pile of dirt delivered. A friend asked me why my pace in completing the task had increased, and I explained that we had some major storms coming into the area. Dirt and water do mix…and then move down the street. Wet dirt is heavy, and heavy dirt makes a few days’ project linger into next year’s project. And that is why I moved faster.

It’s one thing to have the weatherperson or an app telling us that storms are on the horizon. But our post-modern secular frame often informs our thinking about spiritual weather. It is possible to smell the spiritual rain coming, but the notifications come differently. Degrees, experience, and age won’t get it.

In an article entitled “In a turbulent world, self-awareness and stability are leadership must-haves,” the author discusses the often pressing need for soft skills and reminds us that “leadership is in flux. Previous generations did not have to worry as much, for example, about cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, or climate change.” The solution is self-awareness, characterized by a curious mindset and the understanding that a “stable core is essential – and that starts from within.”

The premise works from a purely secular framework. But what happens when the inner core is unstable? Can you obtain a datum when everything is in motion? And if your inner core is not moving toward wholeness, how can you expect to lead anything outside you that is in flux? How can you possibly lead to prepare for rain you can’t see coming if you are unable to deal with the spiritual flux inside?

Before Noah begins building and leading humanity, we find that God is building and forming him. People who lead like Noah get that God has a priority that supersedes and permeates our job tasks. Genesis 6 teaches us that God favors Noah and his family, and that they also benefit. Before there was a good response from Noah, grace and mercy were already fresh each morning for Noah. He did not earn the good he had; he responded favorably to what God had already provided.

We are reminded that anticipating spiritual and physical uncertainty does not begin with methods and strategies from proven metrics. Or with intellectual prowess or our upbringing. Noah’s preparation began with God’s favor. Grace made Noah’s walk different. He walked right before God. He wasn’t blameless because he never sinned, but he embodied an all-of-life repentance. And he refused to live by a secular frame. God was not relegated to religious activity or only conjured up when trouble came in the world. Leaders like Noah learn to walk with God as creator and sustainer of all things, including the things coming around the corner we cannot see. God’s priority was to form Noah into the kind of image bearer, the kind of leader whose primary disposition is to look to things that can’t be seen. (2 Cor. 4:18) God is the Lord of our inner core. And when leaders walk in wholeness before God, they are prepared to see and lead differently.

Find all Life for Leaders devotions here. Explore what the Bible has to say about work at the unique website of our partners, the Theology of Work Project. Reflection on today’s Life for Leaders theme can be found here: God Calls Noah and Creates a New World (Genesis 6:9-8:19).