by David Delp | Dec 11, 2016 | Leadership, Spiritual Life, Uncategorized
I woke up in the middle of the night last night to a gently scolding revelation. Arrogance is a hinderance from releasing the good stuff inside me. What?!? Yep, when we fail to release the gold inside us because we constantly question its worth, that could be arrogance. Humility is necessary to rightly release the good things in us to bless others.
Here are 10 reasons why humility is an essential character quality for leaders.
#1 Humility is accepting myself and my limitations and not trying be something I am not. Arrogance is trying to appear to be something I am not. Humility supports authenticity, arrogance does not.
#2 Humility submits to crucifixion. Lately, an emerging character trait allows me to steel myself and push through pain when facing needful difficulty. The more battle scarred I become, the easier it is to do this. I am determined to be whole and healthy, and sometimes the process of such is incredibly painful. My natural inclinations are to draw back from hardships and to choose an easier path. Arrogance seeks to convince me that life’s difficulties are unfair, and that I deserve an easier path. Arrogance uses words like “deserve” and “fair” while humility understands we truly “deserve” nothing and no one’s life is ever really “fair.” Yet another reason I am so thankful for grace and mercy!
#3 Humility allows me to champion unpopular ideas, because it is needful, and its not about me. Arrogance proclaims controversial ideas for the purpose of garnering attention or increasing ratings or readership. Humility is willing to appear less profound, less studied, and less clever in order to simplistically deliver that which is most needful for the situation. Arrogance makes acrostics, rhyming points, and trendy ideas solely for the purpose of impressing the audience. Clever is good, but the mission is communication of vital truth, not clever for the sake of applause.
#4 Humility deflects attention to the One who is more important than I. Arrogance seeks to draw attention to self.
#5 Humility painfully communicates the truth of cause and effect, while arrogance plays to the crowd with harsh and legalistic tones because it wants the applause of the Pharisees. Humility fosters transformation, arrogance promotes alienation.
#6 Humility embraces the necessary path even when anticipating a smack to the jaw. Arrogance obscures truth with candy coating for the sake of its reputation and standing.
#7 Humility allows for celebration. Celebration is awesome. Be proud of outstanding accomplishments. Be celebratory and grateful for the favor of the Father and be ecstatic in his grace. High-five, and shout, and be exuberant over wins. Such behavior is neither humility nor arrogance, it is joyful living! It is sweet. I love it! Humility is not dour or sour or boring or consistently painful or abased. That would be called asceticism… and I think asceticism finds its genesis in arrogance…hmmm…
#8 Humility opens the door to revelation. I’ve never met an arrogant leader who seemed to hear the heartbeat of God. Believe me, I never use the word “never” without thinking long and hard about it. Maybe I’m not looking hard enough, maybe I’m just jaded. I’ve personally never seen humility obsessed with trendiness, though I am certain some humble people might be. I’ve never seen humility draped in plainness with the intent to draw attention to itself. Arrogance, on the other hand, seems to always want to draw attention to itself. I’ve never encountered a leader who was really connected to the heartbeat of God who exuded arrogance. The men and women who have made a difference in my life always exuded humility. Maybe because that’s what I was looking for, maybe because that is how I personally identify wisdom, maybe because brokenness releases the diamonds of the Father more so than arrogance ever can.
#9 Humility enables the impartation of value. I’m suspicious of people for whom everything has always gone their way. I look for people who are figuratively missing a few teeth because they’ve endured blows to the face in the course of life. I look for gray hair and some graybeards who have loved intensely and lost tragically. I look for people with limps and scars who survived something, because if they survived something then they might have something transformational to give me.
When I was a bit younger, I believed anything was possible and that God favored me above all others. I never was a stand out, but I acted like one. My wounds that became scars and my breaks that became limps have taught me more than all of my easy times combined. These things imparted to me a brokenness that instructs humility. And still… believe it or not there are people who look down on others who have survived hard blows. There are those who intimate something was lacking in either my spirituality or the love of the Father towards me. Arrogance is disturbed by such comments, so arrogance is not dead in me yet, but humility understands that the accusers only feel that way because they’ve not yet had their wound or scar, or they simply hide and deny their deepest wounds.
Not every action denotes either humility or arrogance. I do not want to polarize everything as either humility or arrogance; rather, I write these thoughts because I need to regularly remind myself, and the leaders I love, that courage is more often clothed with humility than with arrogance. We do courageous things because they must be done, not because it feeds our ego. At least that is my hope. My arrogance would rather I run away from battles, because I don’t “deserve” the skirmishes, its just not “fair.”
I want to be obedient to my heavenly Father. I am engaged in the lifelong process of the crucifixion of self. I think that I shall only be free from the anchor to this world when I experience glorification on “that day.” Am I arrogant? Yes, I am, too often. Am I humble? From the depths of my soul may I embrace it and grow in it.
#10 Humility is forging forward in obedience to the obvious task without bowing to possible consequences. Oh yes, I do believe in calculating risks, being a good steward, etc., but I’m talking about that moment when we know what we ought to do, what we must do, and arrogance squeezes it out of us. When the Father gives a divine vision, a divine strategy, things to which obedience is required, can I obey without throwing a shield up because I am afraid of opinions and opposition? I hope so.
I do seek to follow Jesus’ example and be clothed with his humility, so that I may simply do my best to be obedient.
by David Delp | Sep 28, 2016 | Grief & Disappointment, Spiritual Life
I’ve always lacked boldness… that’s a nice way of saying I’m a natural born coward. I care about what others think, this is a strength. I am influenced too much by what others MIGHT think, this is a weakness. Some people think I’m intimidating, I can be, but on the inside I want everyone to be happy and think only happy thoughts about me.
I am at a men’s prayer summit. I’ve decided to write the next few days about what God is speaking to me. I’m a perfectionist, so to just publish on the fly like this is out of my comfort zone, but that’s the point…
God has given you everything you need for life and godliness. He has given you gifts. He has called you with a calling unique to you (2 Peter 1:3).
It is time.
It is time to step into your calling with boldness.
We must challenge each other in the context of our culture, but we must not bow to the culture.
I grew a beard on sabbatical. I liked it. Donna liked it. Being the natural coward I am, as the sabbatical wound down, my thoughts turned to shaving, not because I wanted to, but because of how it might be perceived. “He’s trying to be cool.” He’s going through an emotional crisis.” He’s trying to figure out who he is.” “It looks raggedy.” “I don’t like it.” “It doesn’t look professional.” People really care far less about what we are doing than we think! Getting noticed is far more challenging than anyone focusing on us.
I decided to keep the beard. I kept it because it reminds me of who I am, because it brings me pleasure, and because, oddly enough, I believe it brings God pleasure.
I’ve decided that I’m not a weasel. I’ve decided that God likes me. He thinks I’m cool. I’ve decided that my life was not turned upside down because I’m a worthless worm. The days I walked in that belief were painful days. I don’t know why our worlds got turned upside down, but it is not because God doesn’t like us or that he is out to get us.
[shareable]God actually likes me! Wow![/shareable]
Over the past few years I’ve met and talked to a lot of people who have lost people they love. We never signed up for this ministry, but it surely found us. Most of us who have suffered untimely loss have felt, at least for a few moments, that it was our fault because we were worthless and not worthy of being spared from intense pain.
Before we can move forward we have to find a boldness. A boldness to stand. A boldness to be. A boldness to embrace the path and what’s ahead.
[shareable]We must have boldness to move forward. A boldness to stand. A boldness to be. A boldness to embrace the path and what’s ahead. [/shareable]
I am UNAPOLOGETICALLY who I am.
I am UNAPOLOGETICALLY David Delp. The good, the bad, the ugly, the crap, the wonderful things… but this one thing I know. My Daddy, Abba, loves me. He adores me. He dotes over me. He has called me to live in his presence. He has called me to hear his heartbeat. He has given me the privilege of listening to his very heartbeat. He has allowed me close enough to hear. To feel his warmth. To smell the aroma of his very presence.
I will UNAPOLOGETICALLY follow the demands and directions he gives me.
I will UNAPOLOGETICALLY go where he wants me to go. I will ask for the resources to do so, both of my Father and of those who are holding on to his wealth.
I will UNAPOLOGETICALLY write what he puts on my heart. I will UNAPOLOGETICALLY say what he wants said. I will UNAPOLOGETICALLY go where he wants me to go. I will UNAPOLOGETICALLY be who he wants me to be.
by David Delp | Jun 12, 2015 | Spiritual Life, Uncategorized
How do you know if you are following the right agenda? I want to follow “God’s agenda”, but sometimes what I really want is God’s approval of my own agenda. Funny how God’s voice and my voice can sound a lot alike.
(NOTE: Spirituality is important and is one of the big 5 for this blog: Spiritual Life, Self-Leadership, Life-Management, Relationships, and Vocation.)
I’ve been slowly working my way through the book of Joshua (Bible: Old Testament) in my personal reflection times. It is the story of Joshua leading a million former slaves into a new life, into their “promised land.” In chapter 3 they come to the Jordan river at flood stage and they must strategically cross. The priests were leading the people carrying the Ark of the Covenant, which represented God’s Presence. When the priests put their feet in the swollen Jordan river the water dammed up some distance upstream and the priests and the people walked across the Jordan River bed on dry ground. They walked into God’s agenda for their lives.
They stepped into the water and a miracle happened. The river dried up so they could strategically walk across. Some thoughts:
- They moved forward in God’s agenda
- The miracle didn’t happen until they took a risk
- They moved with the Presence of God
I’ve spent my life trying to discover the perfect path. I’ve cycled through a lot of different thoughts:
- Maybe God has a perfect plan for my life and it will just happen.
- Maybe God’s plan will only be fulfilled if I aggressively make it happen.
- Maybe there is no real plan for my life and out of my spiritual intuitiveness I need to just craft a plan.
- Maybe there are a lot of good paths for me to walk and I just need to pick one.
- Maybe “stuff” just happens and it really doesn’t matter what I do.
I’ve had good things happen over which I wanted to “high-five” God and say, “Yeah, we did it!” I’ve had bad things happen (such as the untimely and sudden death of my first wife after 33 years of marriage) where I just looked at the sky and said, “What the heck was that!” These things have caused me to ask all of the bulleted “may-bes” above.
Here’s the deal:
We must discover the difference between our agenda and God’s agenda.
How do I then differentiate between my agenda and God’s agenda?
- I must first determine why God’s agenda is important or relevant.
- I must act on what I believe and take risks.
- I must move with the Presence of God
God’s Agenda is Important and Relevant
We are part of a bigger picture. We can become so individualistic in our thinking we discount the importance of community and how we all interface together for the common good of all. Sometimes it seems there is no plan and we are all on our own, but my faith and experience tells me otherwise.
Our relationships make us rich, without them life loses meaning.
There are good things to experience, things and relationships that bring so much meaning into our lives. I don’t want to leave my future to chance. I don’t do it in my strategic thinking and planning for organizations, processes, and leadership, and I don’t want to leave it undone for my personal life and those I am leading.
It takes a measure of faith to believe life has a purpose beyond the “dash between the dates”. God’s agenda, His plan and purpose for my life, is relevant to me and I want to discover the right paths to walk in my life, because I desire the right destination.
In Joshua’s story the river did not stop for the people, it stopped for the Presence of God. The river did not stop for Joshua’s agenda, or the people’s agenda, the river stopped because it was God’s agenda.
Arrogance leads me to expect miracles to take place to fulfill my agenda, faith leads me to expect miracles to take place to fulfill God’s agenda.
God’s agenda is both important and relevant because if I operate out of a grand and divine purpose I am going to approach mandates with a God-confidence instead of a self-confidence.
Question: How do you discover God’s agenda for your life? How do you help those you lead discover and pursue God’s agenda for their life?
Act on What you Believe and Take Risks
To take the most important national treasure (The Ark) and step into a river at flood stage is a risk. Remember all the stories of those who try to drive across a flooded road and their 2-ton car is swept away by the current?
I need to anchor in a few things I believe so strongly that I am willing to take huge risks. If it is about me, then I’m a little uncomfortable with that. If it is about what I believe to be a divine direction, then lets step in and do it.
Here’s the thing: We need a duel preparedness. If we step in and the river dries up, cool! If we step in, get swept down river, lose the ark and nearly (or completely) lose our lives, at least we stepped out in something we truly believed to be the right thing–and I’m good with that!
Stop being afraid of making the wrong decision, just have a pure heart, do the best you can with the right motives, and go for it!
Question: How do we help those we lead become risk-takers?
Move With the Presence of God
The ark represented the Presence of God. They followed God. This is key.
We must give attention to the development of our spiritual lives. As transformational leaders we need to give as much time and attention to the spiritual development of those we love and lead as to their professional and temporal development. Sometimes that takes the form of setting an example, or being transparent with your own spirituality in a way appropriate to the relationship.
I position myself daily to quiet my spirit, to get in the Presence of God. Rather than talk endlessly about all of the things I want or need, or the things I just want to get off my chest, I get quiet and I listen. Oh, the insights that come when you listen and journal.
How do we move with the Presence of God:
- We quiet ourselves and listen for insights and impressions.
- We look for the activity of God around us, what does He seem to be doing?
- We listen to the insights of people in our lives we trust.
- Most of all, we seek to have a pure heart with the right motivations so we can trust our spiritual instincts.
I want to be a risk-taker. I want to move forward with what I believe to be God’s agenda.
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