The Beauty of Ashes

Nothing about this journey is easy. The journey is hard. The journey of leadership that is. If you find me someone that says they have leadership all figured out, I will find you a lier. The longer I lead the more I realize it is more of an art than it is a science.

I was speaking with a gentleman yesterday who asked me how my journey has been. The journey of moving to a strange land and now has become home to plant a church. He asked me if I have had any struggles along the way. When he asked I must admit I just looked at him perplexed. Perplexed because there had been so many struggles I didn't know where to begin. So I just smiled and simply said yeah quite a few.

It turns out this older man has planted churches through his life in Africa, Germany, and now here in the United States and as i smiled and said yes plenty of struggles he knew exactly where I had been. This man, or if I might be as bold to say a vessel God was speaking to me through, continued to share with me these trials and struggles was God's way of preparing me for God's next step and future work for us in the church plant. He continued to tell me that I can't take someone or something somewhere I have never been myself. He said to me that the future of this ministry lies in the beauty of the ashes of past struggles. Wow what a concept for all of us to grab hold of. Let us begin to celebrate together the challenges we have all faced because it is in those that God is building His leader.

I praise God for how he speaks to us at just the right times! Thank you Jesus for helping me celebrate the ashes!