Who’s Holding You? Part 3

Scripture — Psalm 131:1-3 (NRSV)

A Song of Ascents. Of David.

Devotion

In last week’s Life for Leaders devotions (Part 1, Part 2), I was working with you on a question posed by Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky in their book Leadership on the Line. As you may recall, they observe that one of the essential functions of adaptive leadership is creating a holding environment: “A holding environment is a space formed by a network of relationships within which people can tackle tough, sometimes divisive questions without flying apart” (p. 102). Then Heifetz and Linsky focus on the adaptive leader: “Through your own experience, you may indeed have become extraordinarily good at providing a holding environment for people . . . . But who’s holding you; who’s holding the holder? When you are completely exhausted from being the containing vessel, who will provide you with a place to meet your need for intimacy and release?” (pp. 176-177).

Today, I’m thinking about being held by someone with unusual poignancy. Why? Because it’s my mother’s birthday and she was a wonderful “holder.” I can still remember how, when I was young, I would have terrible nightmares. My crying would awaken my mom, who would come into my room, pick me up, and cradle me in her arms as she rocked me back to sleep.

What I experienced with my mother finds expression in Psalm 131:1-2, where the psalmist writes,

O LORD, my heart is not lifted up,
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
too great and too marvelous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.

I can certainly relate to that “weaned child with its mother.” I will always treasure the warmth of my mom’s strong arms and the sound of her voice as she sang comforting songs to calm my soul. The psalm writer isn’t focusing on the care offered by a human mother, of course. Rather, he is using the image of a child with its mother as a way of describing how he has experienced God’s motherly tenderness. Psalm 131 is reminiscent of Isaiah 66:13 where God says, “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.”

Our answer to the question “Who’s holding you?” rightly points to the people in our lives who provide wise, caring, restoring support, people like Paul’s missional partner Timothy, my congregant Joe, or my mother. I hope you can answer the “Who’s holding you?” question by naming at least one specific person who serves as a reliable “holder” in your life.

But we have a slightly different kind of response to the “Who’s holding you?” question. If we have a relationship with the living God, then we have access to the most exquisite Holder in all creation, the one of whom Isaiah says, “Like a shepherd, he will care for his flock, gathering the lambs in his arms, hugging them as he carries them, leading the nursing ewes to good pasture” (Isa 40:11, The Message).

One of the most moving biblical images of God the Holder comes from a familiar story told by Jesus. In the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32), a young man demands his inheritance from his father, squanders it in decadent living, and ends up feeding pigs in a distant land. He decides to return home and to beg to become one of his father’s servants. But, contrary to all reasonable expectations, when the prodigal son returns home, his father forgives him and restores him into the family (Luke 15:22-24).

This is indeed wonderful, a dramatic illustration of God’s amazing grace. Yet the father doesn’t receive and restore his son from a safe distance. Given the fact that the young man had been feeding pigs and traveling a long way to get home, keeping some distance from him would have made sense. But that’s not what the father did. Rather, “while [the young man] was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him” (15:21). The father embraced his son, or we might say “held his son,” out of compassion and joy, even when the young man was actually a dirty, smelly sinner.

This parable of Jesus reminds us that God does not hold us only when we are tidied up. Rather, God’s arms of love embrace us in our dirty, smelly sinfulness. God holds us, not because we are deserving, but because God is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Exod 34:6).

Find all Life for Leaders devotions here. Explore what the Bible has to say about work at the High Calling archive, hosted by the unique website of our partners, the Theology of Work Project. Reflection on today’s Life for Leaders theme can be found here: A Calm and Quiet Soul.

Subscribe to Life for Leaders

Sign up to receive a Life for Leaders devotional each day in your inbox. It’s free to subscribe and you can unsubscribe at any time.