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Jesus startles with his vision of human leadership. It’s hard to imagine leadership more radically different from what people have envisioned or practiced throughout human history. In a world where “the greatest among you will be the greatest among you,” Jesus teaches that “the greatest among you will be your servant.”

Jesus’s vision of his messianic work was truly radical, truly shocking.

In my experience, one of the hardest things about having a relationship with God is the fact that I can’t actually see God. Oh, I believe I can see evidence of God in the world. And I know that God makes himself known to us in all sorts of ways, through Scripture, through the community of his people, etc. I also believe that God was once visible on earth through the person of Jesus Christ. But, of course, Jesus is not physically present in that way anymore. So, when it comes to our relationship with God, we confront the problem of God’s invisibility to us.

Zechariah and Elizabeth were good, godly people. But God had not fulfilled their deep desire for a child. Their yearning invites us into the ethos and pathos of Advent.

Whether there was a letter sent to Paul with questions, or Paul was simply thinking about how his situation affected those in Philippi, it is clear what Paul wanted them to know. It is what we need to become intimately clear about also: dire circumstances can actually bring about redemptive hope.

In this week’s Life for Leaders devotions (Monday, Tuesday), we have been reflecting on what happens when our leadership is deeply personal. The example of Joseph in Genesis 42 offers a salient example for our reflection.

Written by Mark D. Roberts. Categories include De Pree Journal.

Certain leaders, those in the military, law enforcement, public health, or medicine, may sometimes face actual life or death leadership challenges. Most of us will not. But we might still feel deathly panic when things entrusted to us go terribly wrong or when we’re faced with genuine dangers, like the coronavirus. When this happens, we need to catch ourselves and cry out to God for help. We need to remember God’s faithfulness and trust to him both our situations and ourselves.