Dear Faith Family,
"Humble yourself before the Lord, and he will exalt you."
(James 4:10)
In the early two-thousands, I was in a Ph.D. program focused on the study of leadership. In the program, we looked at everything from the psychological makeup of successful leaders, to the technical nuances and differences between leadership and management, to various philosophies of leadership, whether personal, organizational, or academic, and more. One of those philosophies of leadership, which you might be at least somewhat familiar with, was "Servant Leadership."
Essentially, the philosophy expounded the notion that great leaders' primary focus is on the betterment of those they lead. A leader is first a servant, and that mere fact is central to their greatness. The more a leader embodies the position of a servant, the greater their leadership ascends.
Servant Leadership is a worthy model, and many have argued it is a rather biblical one. After all, isn't this Jesus' model, as one who came to serve, not be served (Matt. 20:28)? Perhaps that's why you are familiar with this philosophy. Since it was coined in 1970 by Robert Greenleaf, Servant Leadership has been adopted and encouraged as the philosophy and model for many Christian organizations and institutions. But there is an ironic twist to this seemingly Christian ideal: Greenleaf was neither a Christian nor did he model his philosophy after Jesus.
Robert Greenleaf was, in fact, a universalist who found inspiration for his philosophy from Hermen Hesse's novel Journey To The East and its primary character, a servant revealed as a mystical leader, named Leo. At the heart of the story and Greenleaf's philosophy is that attentive serving leads to effective leadership. Service, if you will, is the fuel of leadership.
Built within and upon Greenleaf's understanding, Servant Leadership models (often subversively and perhaps unintentionally) espoused service as a means of gaining and sustaining greater influence or power over others. One served because one wanted to lead, to get people where the leader believed they needed to be (personally, professionally, organizationally, etc.); thus rising as a leader.
Now, before I lose you (and I hope I haven't already!), my point is not to disparage Servant Leadership theory, for much good has come from it. Nor is my point about servant leadership at all. Rather, the point is that we do to James' exhortation above what Greenleaf did to the leader who is a servant: we make the right action (serving = humbling ourselves) a means to an end (leading = being exalted), rather than recognizing that the right action is the true nature of the one who has received their end.
Let me say it another way. A servant leads because they have been given leadership (whether in gifting or position); ironically, just as Leo, it came to be found out, was already a master sage, and just as Jesus was already the Son of God. Service is not a means; it is an expression of their nature as true and good leaders. So too is humility.
Humility is not a means to our exaltation as if we could manhandle our souls into the correct state of humiliation that qualifies us for glorification. Rather, humility is an expression of the true and good nature of one who has been the recipient of a "good gift and... perfect gift...the implanted word, which is able to save our souls" (James 1:17-21).
We are exalted, raised up by "the Father of lights" who, "Of his own will...brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures" (James 1:17-18); therefore, our right action is to be humbled before the Lord. The nature of the exalted ones, raised to, not earning our position but gifted it, is to be humble.
So, if humbling ourselves is not a means to an end, but a means of participating in our true nature with faith, then how do we go about it without falling into the "servant leadership" trap? Well, as we discussed on Sunday, we learn to mourn:
"Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom" (James 4:9)
Mourning allows us to remember what was and what has been received, and so, live with joyful courage and wise compassion. So, will you join me in humbling ourselves through mourning this week, not as a means to get something but as a natural response to what we have received? Here is how.
Read James 4:9-17
(Re)Listen or Watch(!) the Sermon
Reflect & Share
First with the Lord and then with your GC or a faith-filled friend:Where have I condemned others because I failed to grieve my sins?
How can my grieving Sin lead to my submitting to and discerning of God's will?
What would be different tomorrow if I humbled myself through faith at work within me?
May our participation in the faith at work within us lead us to experience the wondrous reality that indeed:
"Blessed [already happy] are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." (Matthew 5:4)
Love you, faith family. God bless.