Conduits
Some leaders spend their entire lives acting like generators when they were only ever designed to be conduits. God never asked leaders to manufacture power. He asked them to steward what he already released into creation.
“Energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can only be transferred or transformed.” - The First Law of Thermodynamics has had me thinking lately.
Picture the most violent forces in nature: hurricanes, tsunamis, lightning storms, tornadoes, blizzards. Massive, overwhelming, uncontrollable power.
Now strip away every ounce of modern technology and place yourself directly in the middle of it all. On a wooden boat in the high seas during a storm. Alongside an F5 tornado - you know, “the finger of God” (Twister, 1996). Standing helplessly on the shore as a tsunami approaches.
Then multiply that energy by the unimaginable magnitude of all of creation, and what do we have?
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. – Genesis 1:1 – 2
All the power. All the energy. All the creative force of existence itself that ever was or ever will be resides in this rendering of Creation.
And what did God do with it?
He brought order to chaos. Light from darkness. Land from sea. Life from emptiness. Flourishing from disorder.
Creation itself is the story of divine power being intentionally ordered according to God’s design.
Then comes the astonishing part. God handed his creation over to us.
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground… God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” – Genesis 1:26, 28
The earth, and everything in it, was entrusted to humanity to steward, cultivate, manage, develop, and cause to flourish.
That is an unimaginable amount of entrusted power released into creation for humanity to manage. Which leads us to this week’s leadership Stretch.
Do you and I truly realize we are merely conduits of God’s incredible, immeasurable, uncontainable power?
Do we understand the role we play – every single day – in the ongoing stewardship of his creative order?
Because leadership, at its best, is participating with God in bringing order where chaos and unmitigated power threatens to destroy.
Healthy leaders bring clarity. Healthy leaders create stability. Healthy leaders cultivate environments where people flourish instead of fracture.
In many ways, leadership is the ongoing stewardship of creative order.
And – to borrow from the world of electricity (power management) – leaders are designed to carry more current. More load. More responsibility.
The wire is bigger. The conduit more able.
But let’s remember something critically important: That is not of your doing.
If you are a leader – at any level – God gifted you that capacity.
Every leadership development exercise you have ever engaged in – and every one from here forward – is simply another responsible attempt to steward that gift more faithfully and efficiently.
And this stewardship extends far beyond the spiritual, emotional, or intellectual dimensions of life. It includes the physical as well.
The foods we eat. The sleep we prioritize. The exercise we impose upon ourselves. The rhythms of recovery we either honor or ignore.
All of it matters.
Why? Because all of it is a form of good power and energy management. Your body is not separate from your leadership. It is one of the primary conduits through which your leadership flows.
Too many leaders attempt to carry spiritual responsibility, emotional burdens, and organizational weight through exhausted bodies, neglected health, and depleted reserves.
Eventually the conduit weakens. Not because the Source lacks power, but because the steward failed to care for the vessel.
Heart. Soul. Mind. AND Strength.
The whole person matters because the whole person was created by God and entrusted with stewardship responsibilities.
I could take this a number of different directions, but this is meant to be a stretch, not a dissertation. Here’s one last thing to chew on.
Healthy conduits require grounding.
Leaders disconnected from God – his Word, his Will, and his Way – eventually begin mistaking themselves for the source.
That’s where pride grows. That’s where burnout accelerates. That’s where misuse of power begins.
Unmanaged power does not merely fail. It destroys.
May you and I remember this and embrace it as an ultimate truth:
All power comes from God,
is entrusted to us by God,
must be surrendered back to God,
and is to be stewarded for the glory of God.
You and I are ongoing conduits of the immeasurable power God infused into creation at the beginning of time – for a purpose.
So lead well. Steward the load wisely. Bring order where chaos exists. Carry strength with humility. And never forget…
You and I were never designed to be the source. Only the conduit.
Blessings to you, my friends!
==========
This Week’s Resource Recommendation:
"The Road Less Stupid"
- Keith J. Cunningham
From Amazon: Smart people do dumb things. Here's the proof: How much money would you have right now if I gave you the ability to unwind any three financial decisions you have ever made? Years ago, after suffering a humiliatingly large dumb tax, it dawned on me that I have a seemingly unlimited ability to hit unforced errors and sabotage my business and financial success. I suspect you do, too. It turns out that the key to getting rich (and staying that way) is to avoid doing stupid things. I don't need to do more smart things. I just need to make fewer dumb mistakes. The vast majority of our dumb tax is a direct result of emotional, overly optimistic and poorly thought out decisions. Every one of those three decisions you would love to unwind was an avoidable mistake. Thinking is critical to sustainable success in business; said another way, business is an intellectual sport. The principles and structure suggested in The Road Less Stupid will enable anyone, (regardless of the size of the business, the currency or the industry) to run their business more effectively, make more money, and dramatically increase the likelihood of keeping that money. It all hinges on Thinking Time. This is a business book for business readers who want to learn the principles and strategies of making great decisions and minimizing risk. The structure of Thinking Time will enable you to minimize reacting emotionally and defaulting to the most obvious "best idea" available in the moment. The series of short chapters and subsequent Thinking Time questions are designed to maximize clarity and create better choices... either of which will result in fewer stupid mistakes. This is the real "secret": The chance of success goes up when you think, plan, consistently execute the right things, and worry about the possibility of loss. Here it is on a bumper sticker: Operators react and sweat. Owners think and plan.
MMS 26-19
I would love to send our Monday Morning Stretch directly to you via email and would consider it an honor to serve you in this way. To register, please take 30 seconds to give us permission to do so below.
