Dare Great Things

Anyone who wants to be successful in leadership needs to be really good at working with people.  The more a leader understands human behavior the more effectively they’ll deal with it and reach the goals of their organization and their mission.  This is where St. Thomas Aquinas gives us a distinct advantage.  He represents a wealth of knowledge coming from the Catholic tradition about how we work, how our hearts work, how we make decisions.  And in this fifth part of our series we look at how he solves the problems of when people just don’t want to work.  

Some do it more from a personal charisma than from a studied approach, but all leaders have to bring people with them towards the vision that they’re casting.  And so that begs the question: “How can we who have to make decisions everyday make them in a way that other people will find attractive?”  Well, reaching back into our Catholic theology we find this subject matter already treated by St. Thomas Aquinas.  And in this fourth part of our series we explore it today.

All great leaders are capable of casting a vision.  But casting a vision is not easy to do.  To have a vision towards a goal means you want to have that goal.  And sometimes are hearts are just afraid to stretch out into the unknown and into the unforeseen.  The grace of God can help us to heal and to have the daring we need to want the things we don’t yet have.  And when we do we become leaders of the heart.  St. Thomas Aquinas helps us understand this process and how we can actualize it in our own lives as leaders today.

 For many people, making decisions is one of the hardest things about leadership.  And yet it is something that every leader has to do all the time.  Loving and serving our God doesn’t take away our responsibility to make good choices and to engage them with all the energy that we have.  But if it’s so important then why do we have such a hard time doing it?  St. Thomas Aquinas offers keen insight into how decisions are made and how love can turn a decision into a choice.

Amongst the great minds of western civilization, St. Thomas Aquinas holds a very special place.  As a Catholic priest he united the depths of our faith with the real practical situations that people face every day.  He does this in an amazing way when it comes to making decisions.  And for all of us in the working world, we know how important this skill set is.  In this first of a series, I try to open the wisdom of St. Thomas Aquinas to help us learn an essential skill for our leadership. How to ask for advice?  

We all know that leadership is about vision and passion but sometimes we forget that if no one is following us we’re not leading anyone.  In truth the test of a good leader includes their ability to engender their spirit in their followers.  And few people were better at this than St. Paul.  In many of his writings, especially his letters to Titus and Timothy, we have a valuable lesson of how a Christian passes their inner fire to their followers.  A lesson our Christian leaders can use today.

By all accounts St. Paul checks all the boxes when it comes to being an effective leader.  But of all of his many wonderful qualities, the strength that dominates his personality without a doubt is his perseverance in the face of adversity.  St. Paul is someone who finishes what he starts.  But many of us struggle to do the same.  Burn out is a real thing and persevering in the face of adversity sometimes just isn’t worth it.  What’s the secret to Paul’s outstanding sense of grit and how can we imitate him today?

If anyone were to survey the general American public, two things would stand out.  First we would all be convinced that things need to be done, actions need to take place, decisions need to be enacted.  And secondly, most of us would agree that it is really hard to do what we know we need to do.  Even if we know what needs to be done it can be a very difficult task to start what we know we need to do.  It was no different for St. Paul.  Yet he gives us the secret of allowing Christ to help us start  doing what we know needs to be done.

Sometimes we imagine saints to be people who have life all figured out.  They seem to know and execute on God’s plan perfectly and therefore it can be hard for us to try and imitate them.  The life of St. Paul, however, shows us something very different.  Many times he did not know what to do and yet he still made decisions.  How did a saint as great as St. Paul make decisions about God’s will?  How did St. Paul know what to do?  By looking at the scriptures we can learn value lessons to help us in our leadership as well.

Have you ever felt like you were in a box?   Like no matter what you chose in life there were already predetermined outcomes and there’s nothing you could do that could change it?  Few things will kill the heart and ability of a leader more quickly than fatalism.  An attitude that says it’s not even worth trying because you won’t make any difference. Funny thing is, we’re not the first people to face fatalism.  We’re not the first people to face the boxes that life presents to us.  True leaders find a way to become creative anyway and Christian leaders become creative with Christ.  Let’s look at St. Paul as an example.

Anyone who takes the time to study the life of St. Paul can’t help but admire than man’s endurance, energy, and determination in the service of Jesus Christ.  Indeed his life seems so spectacular and his exploits so amazing that many people feel they can never imitate him.  But a closer reading of his writings reveals his secret:  God’s strength was revealed in his weakness.  How did St. Paul leverage his weakness to allow Christ to reveal His strength and what does that mean for us as we try to follow Christ as leaders today. 

Many Christians today feel intimidated.  The culture around us is shifting and ideas and notions foreign to the Bible are gaining a cultural foothold.  Many today feel a sense of loss or hopelessness in front of the situations.  But is today’s situation for a Christian that much different than the one that was confronted by the Apostles?  Was the world of St. Paul that much different from today’s world?  Where did St. Paul gain his strength?  What allowed him to lead?  In this new series we explore his soul and the source of his leadership in Christ.

Most people today have an appreciation for leadership, but many people still have the question as to what the difference is between a wordly leader and a Christian leader.  Of course there is no better place to find an answer to this question than by asking Jesus Himself.  In his parables Jesus reveals many keen insights into how He view leadership.  In this third of our three part series we’ll finish our exploration of the parables and the insights they give as to what is a genuinely spiritual leadership.   

The life of Christians is governed by the truth contained in scripture.  And this is especially true for leadership which is why it is so important for us to study the parables of Jesus.  In the parables we hear that leadership comes from God and also receive valuable lessons about what to avoid in order to not allow our leadership to become too worldly and what to do in order to make our leadership as spiritual as possible.  The parables of Jesus are as timely today as they were when he first spoke them.

The Gospel gives us many ways that Jesus addresses his Word to the people.  Amongst the most popular are parables.  These little stories or comparisons help us to understand the deeper messages Jesus is trying to convey.  But do they have anything to say to us who are trying to lead?  In this first of a three part series, we begin to unpack some of Jesus’ parables to find the specific message they have for us.  And we begin by understanding that God is calling us to lead.

What difference is there between a Christian leader and a non-Christian leader?  Does being a Christian impact leadership?  Understanding the ways that it does is vital for us who are called by Christ to lead in our world today.  One place we can look to see what it means to lead as a Christian is the life of the Virgin Mary.  In this final segment of our thirteen part course on Mary’s leadership, we take a deeper look at what it means for her to rule as Queen of Heaven and Earth.

All of us need models for leadership.  Amongst the many candidates the Virgin Mary certainly merits our special attention.  Even though she held no office, did not run a company, and did not have a rank in the military, the mother of Jesus is believed by Christians to be the Queen of Heaven and Earth.  But what makes her leadership so special?  In this twelfth of a thirteen part series on the Virgin Mary, I look at her Assumption body and soul into heaven as an indicator as to what is greatest in her leadership:  the fact that it was totally focused on love. 

Our culture today is at a turning point in many ways.  In general, we are deciding whether or not to allow our Christian faith to continue to inform and direct our cultural decisions.  It seems very tempting to go the route of secularism.  A neutrality with respect to faith, at least in public, in order to let religion be a purely private affair.  But is this the way for Christian leaders?  What value does our faith have in the public sphere?  Surprisingly, the life of the Virgin Mary can help us find the way. 

Let’s face it, leading other people is never an easy proposition.  There are some really dark moments.  If we are honest with ourselves there are times when we would rather quit – stop leading, stop trying to influence others.  Bad things can happen in our lives and moments when it makes us think if it is really worth it.  This is where our Christian faith can be of especial value to us.  Our Lord led us through the cross.  And He has graced His cross to be the power and the strength of those who lead in His name.  The Virgin Mary shows us this in her own life.

Christian leaders follow Christ – even though it seems contradictory to say leaders follow – this is what makes our leadership special.  It’s not about us.  It’s about Him and the influence He gives to the world through us.  The Virgin Mary demonstrates this admirable in her own life.  She is Christ’s perfect servant by doing everything that she can to make Him known and loved.  We can see this throughout his apostolic life but especially at two key moments.