Why Some Leaders Get All The Attention

It is because the eyes of the Most High have willed it so.

Spiritual Leadership by J. Oswald Sanders is on my Top 10 List of books every leader should read. In Chapter 4, "Natural And Spiritual Leadership," Sanders relays an incident about leadership and humility that bears repeating.

Once Saint Francis of Assisi was confronted by a brother who asked him repeatedly, "Why you? Why you?" Francis responded, in today's terms, "Why me what?" "Why does everyone want to see you? Hear you? Obey you? You are not all so handsome, nor learned, nor from a noble family. Yet the world seems to want to follow you," the brother said. Then Francis raised his eyes to heaven, knelt in praise to God, and turned to his interrogator:

You want to know? It is because the eyes of the Most High have willed it so. He continually watches the good and the wicked, and as His most holy eyes have not found among sinners any smaller man, nor any more insufficient and sinful, therefore he has chosen me to accomplish the marvelous work which God hath undertaken; He chose me because He could find none more worthless, and He wished to confound the nobility and grandeur, the strength, the beauty and the learning of this world.

We are often tempted to look horizontally when it comes to assessing the "success" of others: What do they have that I don't have? Our first look must always be vertical. Ultimately, leadership promotions rest on the sovereignty of God: "It is because the eyes of the Most High have willed it so."

This is not a fatalistic acquiescence, but a recognition that "in Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28). It is a recognition that God gives authority "to whom he will" (Daniel 4:17). Knowing that, Christian leaders are humbly bold in their service. They can also rejoice with those who "get a bigger assignment," while still working hard to improve in their own spehere of influence (Proverbs 22:29).

Today, surrender your leadership to God. Thank Him that He is very much in control.

Want more? Click here to read Meek Leadership Is Mighty Leadership.

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Note: The anecdote regarding Saint Francis, along with the quotes, came from Spiritual Leadership by J. Oswald Sanders, page 31.