Leadership

I recently got a promotion at work and am now a team leader. It's short of supervisor, but I help manage workflow and schedules for the assistant editors. It's my first "official" leadership position in the workplace, and I've been thinking about what kind of leader I want to be.

Then I read Joshua 3, where Joshua leads the Israelites across the Jordan River. And I noticed something I'd never noticed before. Before they cross, God says this to Joshua: "Today I will begin to make you a great leader in the eyes of all the Israelites. They will know that I am with you, just as I was with Moses" (Joshua 3:7).

And after they cross, the account is summed up in Joshua 4:14: "That day the Lord made Joshua a great leader in the eyes of the Israelites, and for the rest of his life they revered him as much as they revered Moses." (To which I thought - well, that's not saying much - they didn't revere Moses all that well...)

But revering aside, the Bible says that this event was the defining moment of Joshua's leadership. It had nothing to do with reading management books. His leadership was defined through his faith, when he allowed God to do something amazing through him. And his leadership was defined even though he gave all the credit to God.

That's the kind of leader I want to be.