REFLECTIONS

Leading

Speed limit signs passed my notice as we merged onto the interstate for a long drive. So I chose a white car in front of me to be my gauge to set the cruise control. We followed the white car for miles before finally becoming disengaged by intervening traffic. But I found myself reflecting on the car that we had chosen to set our pace. I wondered who the driver was, what he or she might be like, and whether they were even abiding by the speed limit themselves. I didn’t even care where they were going, yet I had chosen to follow them. And they knew nothing about it.

It is a bit frightening to think that I was so willing to blindly follow someone I would never know. For all I knew of them, they may have been bandits on the run, or drug dealers trying to go unnoticed. They may have been upstanding citizens honoring the law, or Christians on a mission trip. No matter their beliefs, occupation, or character, I had chosen to follow their lead.

Then my attention drifted to the car in the rear view mirror. I knew nothing of the parties in that vehicle either. But I did become aware that they were following me. I couldn’t help but wonder who they were, where they were going, what kind of people they might be, and why they were following me. Then it came to me. Just as the white car had been leading me, in some small way and for reasons unknown, I was leading them.

Leading is a heavy responsibility. And we all have it. It’s not only in work settings where leadership exists, or in the home where shaping the lives of our children is a primary responsibility. Leading is a responsibility we have at all times and in all places.

That day as we followed the white car down the interstate, I realized that I was not following it to its destination. Rather I patterned my driving to theirs. And the person behind me was likely not going to the place we were headed. But I was leading them at least for a moment in time. So what message will they carry away from me? Will they remember to drive more cautiously, or more courteously, or within the laws set forth? Or might they leave with ideas that could lead to destruction.

The lesson that day was not about driving safely. The lesson is to live as Jesus would have us to live. Someone might be following. And we may know nothing about it.

You are the light of the world,

Richard +

www.reflectingthesavior.org

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