DailyLeadership: What price are you willing to pay to lead? (157-5)

Leadership Principles

What price are you willing to pay to lead? (157-5)

Written by Barry-Werner on January 21st, 2011. Posted in Conflict Management, Dependence on God, Jeremiah, Justice, Leadership Principles, Managing Criticism, Mark, New Testament, Old Testament, Personal Development, Self-Discipline.

Everyone involved in leadership will pay a price in personal sacrifice.  Read Jeremiah 1:18-19.

John Maxwell addresses the concept of Jeremiah’s personal sacrifice in his notes in The Maxwell Leadership Bible. Maxwell says:

Jeremiah Gave Up Loads to Lead

Leaders must practice the Law of Sacrifice. We must give up to go up. Our call to lead is no cakewalk, but calls for responsibility and sacrifice.

The opportunity to practice this law provides a motive check for us. Leaders always gain a chance to evaluate their motives when leadership becomes difficult and requires more sacrifice. Jeremiah endured several occasions to practice this law:

  1. He was called to a ministry of opposition (1:18,19). Jeremiah never gained popularity. People didn’t flock to hear him denounce their wickedness.
  2. He was not permitted to marry (16:1,2). Jeremiah lived a life of solitude without the joys of family and loved ones.
  3. He was beaten and put into stocks (20:1-3). The people responded to the prophet’s message with physical punishment.
  4. He was publically disgraced to depict the judgment of Israel (27:1-3). God told Jeremiah to put bonds and stocks around his neck to illustrate the coming yoke of Babylon.
  5. He was imprisoned in a dungeon (38:1-6). Jeremiah was treated worse than thieves or murderers; he almost suffocated in this dry well.

Do you suddenly feel a little better about your plight as a leader? Jeremiah faced horrible odds, yet never walked away from his message or his call from God.

Mark 8:34, “Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.’”

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