How do we respond in trying times? | S3 E43
With all that’s been going on this past week, I decided to switch things up and do a different episode than I originally planned. Instead of adding another self publishing episode, I thought it would be good to talk about something that I think as leaders we need to be intentional about.
Before I hop into this weeks episode though, I wanted to let you know that the Self Publish course is now live! So if that’s something you or someone you know is interested in, head over to self publish course . com. From now through July 23rd you can use the code launchweek15 for 15% off.
Okay so let’s hop into this weeks episode. I’ve noticed over the past few years things get so heated so quickly on social media and as Christian’s and as leaders I just feel so burden to call us to be different.
As a society we’ve gotten so short fused and heated that as someone who doesn’t like confrontation it’s caused me to be overly nice and apologetic for things that aren’t even my fault. I had this happen last night when I got my nails done, the nail person messed up and I found myself apologizing as I asked them to fix their mistake.
There’s so much pressure online to speak on every single news event and every historical moment. People get mad if you do and mad if you don’t. There’s a short fuse behind the screen where people feel they can rip you apart like it’s nothing. We’ve lost compassion and we have lost the human touch of empathy. The internet doesn’t own you. We don’t have to have our own “press release” every time something happens. Silence is not violence or compliance, frankly sometimes holding our tongue and not posting online is the wiser thing to do.
So how do we as Christian leaders handle all of this? What can we do to be better leaders? We can only control ourselves but we can also influence others with how we lead.
The first thing we need more of is to take a step back and not be led by emotional. Most of the reactions we see are emotionally charged. It’s the reason why logic and fact don’t resonate because the emotions are so high and deep. We need to be able to step back as leaders and feel our emotions but not let them have the drivers seat.
We need to follow the principle of respond not react from Steven covey. So often we react to things. We repost something without a second thought or we jump in the bandwagon of whatever the leaders in our lives are posting. Instead, let’s take time to pause and evaluate and pray to ask God what should my response be to this. Should I say anything or not? Again this helps give us time so we aren’t led by emotion.
Third, I think we need more compassion. Jesus always had compassion and even when he didn’t agree with people, he showed them compassion and led with conviction but never did he shame others. All throughout the Gospels we can see how Jesus led and I think we need to follow his example. We so quickly get away from this when we get wrapped up in social media and it causes us to act from the flesh instead of the spirit. We need the Holy Spirit to guide and lead us and we have to ask ourselves if the way we are acting is like Jesus or like the gentiles or like the Pharisees.
We need to be mission minded aka Gospel minded in everything we do. We were given a mission from Jesus as he left this earth and that was to spread the gospel. There are many other missions in the Bible as well but this one is the greatest. We are called to love and help people get to know Jesus. And if how we react to something online causes someone to feel shame or further from God, we’ve missed the point.
We also have to decide what the most effective form of communication is. Arguing with a bunch of strangers on the internet doesn’t seem to be effective or create much change in my experience. So why don’t we focus on things that can actually help in real life. Take a step back from social media and use it for another purpose. It’s not to say you can’t post things that are meaningful to you, but I think it helps us filter what to post so that it doesn’t become a reaction but has grace and truth with it.
I’ve been so burdened by humanity over the last 3 years more than ever. It makes me sad how people treat one another and how Christian’s treat one another. We are called to be different. I think now more than ever we have to do better. We have to stay in prayer and stay in Gods word in order to know his heart to lead others. We have to constantly do heart checks as well and make sure we are dying to self daily so we can be spirit led.
So i hope this has challenged you this week to think differently and grow as a leader.
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