Humble Leadership

As the summer is winding down, I have decided to squeeze one last book into my learning. Humble Leadership: Being Radically Open to God’s Guidance and Grace by N. Graham Standish. Standish writes this: “The way of humility invites us to follow God’s path, a path that potentially leads to failure- the failure to achieve our ambitions through strength in a world that worships power.” This powerful statements draws me into this book automatically (well that and he spends the first several pages talking about Gandhi!) I won’t lie, I like being in control of my life and there are often times the “following God’s path” sounds way too out of my own control for me. Yet, reflecting on that, I realize it has been in those moments where I have followed said path that I have not actually failed.

The hard part about humility today is that as humans we all crave power, it is simply part of the human condition. As Christians we are called to fight against this internal desire and put ourselves at the bottom instead of the top. This appears to me just to be another obstacle that we must get over to live in this world. Yet, how do we do it? I suppose I shall read the rest of the book to find out!

“So what is humility? From a Genesis perspective it is an awareness and appreciation that we are a combination of dust and spirit, with the Spirit both giving us life and connecting us with God and God’s will.” Reading this quote I realize that what society teaches us humility is and what the Bible teaches us humility is are two different things. Society teaches us humility is weak and that we must not allow others to walk all over us. The Bible teaches us that humility helps us to connect with God allowing us to be stronger!

As I have finished the first chapter (an introduction of humility) I am looking forward to finishing this book. Diving into what it means not only to be humble, but also what it means to be a humble leader. Something that is not often understood.