Leadership

After a couple weeks on Pride and Its Antidote (Humility) [listen here]; the knowledge of service and leadership, pride and humility is seen not only in the church setting, but also it seems to be a desire of the secular world, in which leaders should serve the people.

In Mark 10:43-45

But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

we see Jesus responding to the request of James and John to be seated His right and left hand in heaven, yet the response is not what any of the disciples expected. To be told to serve people and ultimately that is how we would be "great". Counter-intuitive. Yet that is what Christ came to do, to submit Himself to the authority of God, the Father, and to serve and "give his life as a ransom for many."

Now many people might object to this truth, or "see it as good for you, Christian, but that's not what a good leader really is". In the secular eyes, to be great is to be first among many, to be selfish and to be ambitious, the top dawg. But here is an interesting quote I stumbled across, in which the inherent view of understanding leadership is not self serving, rather it is a service to others.

The quote is an excerpt from the senatorial campaign in Arizona.
“People want leaders who will serve them,” Ms. Zambrano said. -NYTimes [read here]

Perhaps the authentic definition of leadership does permeate far wider than I had anticipated.