A long winter
In an article written by Andy Crouch, Kurt
Keilhacker, and Dave Blanchard in March, it was shared, “this is a time to
urgently redesign our work in light of what we believe is not just a weeks-long
“blizzard,” not even just a months-long “winter,” but something closer to the
beginning of a 12–18 month “ice age” in which many assumptions and approaches
must change for good.” This seems to be true for most of us today, a long
winter or ice age.
But the challenge is very few of us are
prepared to lead self and or others in such a long period of uncertainty and
crises! If you look around at leaders across the globe, there are varied
responses. Some are like ostriches, oblivious to the challenges, using the
challenged context to live lives that they always wanted – not relevant to the
context, but lives they wanted to live and enjoy! Use the context for their own
personal gains, and petty self-promotional or self-appeasing goals. There are
others who have been overwhelmed by fear, panic, lack of clarity and are living
given up or living ineffective lives; drifting along with the flow, hoping that
one day the flow will end and they can swim to the shore. Then there are a few who are living and leading self and others,
with a clarity of thought and tenacity.
What makes people to live lives of tenacity amid
such ongoing crises and uncertainty?
In the Bible, there is the
picture of Jesus, setting his face towards Jerusalem and walking towards it.
The disciples followed him, and they were afraid. (Mark 10.32). For Jesus, it was towards the end of almost a
year or more of increasing opposition. He knew when he started on that journey
that he was approaching the end of his life’s journey as he had experienced it
thus far. John Piper says, “When Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem, he set
his face to die. Remember when you think of Jesus' resolution to die that he
had a nature like ours. He shrunk back from pain like we do. He would have
enjoyed marriage and children and grandchildren and a long life and esteem in
the community.”
Four things stand out as we follow Jesus in the
journey over the next few days of his life.
The clarity of the overarching purpose. He was clear what he had come for
and that clarity of purpose gave him the ability to face the long drawn out
opposition, and the few days ahead. He was sure that the turn around was ahead
of him and the same would be through some difficult days. But he was clear that this was the purpose for
which he had come!
The caring for his followers. In the next two days, and prior to
that, we find him spending more and more time with his friends and followers,
encouraging and supporting them. Though he was troubled and challenged, he
intentionally spent time encouraging and challenging his friends to hold on. In
John 13 it says , “Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew
that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the
Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the
end.” With that deep sense of love, undergirded by his clarity of who He was
and what the purpose of His life was, he washes the feet of his disciples
including the one who would betray him.
The openness and vulnerability. In the garden of Gethsemane, he
would invite his close friends to accompany him. A place where he would pour
out His internal struggles and pain to His father. But that aspect of His life
was open for his close friends to see and understand. He requested them to be
awake and pray as a support!
His submission. The next few days we see a calm and composed
master walking the path set before him, completely submitting the context, the challenges,
and the future into the sovereign hands of His Father.
A model for us to reflect. Our tenacity must
come from our clarity of purpose and identity. That clarity of purpose and surety of our
identity should enable us to care for others, though we ourselves need care.
But we need to live and role model a life of vulnerability and openness, and
prayer. Prayer being pouring our confusions to God our father. And such an
engagement with God and friends leading to submission and confidence,
confidence in the overarching purposes of a sovereign God!
May God enable us to live such lives of
tenacity in this challenged confusing long winter!
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