The Call of Duty vs The Call of Love

My Number One Leadership Book

Many people find leadership gist hot and juicy for different reasons. I'm not really concerned about any of those reasons. In this post I want to share some things from my heart that have influenced my style of leadership.

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Our Lord Jesus tells a very touching story in Luke 10:30-36 of a man who
fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of all he had, beat him, wounded him and left him half dead.

I'm about to share with you certain things from this story that, to a large extent, have shaped the way I think and the way I live.

The Bible is my number one leadership book. It's the tool I have used to develop myself in leadership and to develop other leaders over the years

What this story reminds me of most times is that as a leader I must remember that the Call of Love is superior to the Call of Duty.

Take a look:

Luke 10:30-32 (Living Bible)
30 Jesus replied with an illustration: “A Jew going on a trip from Jerusalem to Jericho was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes and money, and beat him up and left him lying half dead beside the road.
31 “By chance a Jewish priest came along; and when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by.
32 A Jewish Temple-assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but then went on.

I think this story is just amazing. I love it. You can take out a minute or how to read the full story.

A whole lot can be said from it but I'll restrict myself to just focusing on what's most related to the topic I'm treating today.

Our Duty Post

The most urgent call in life is the call to love. It's more urgent than the call to perform some duty of any kind.

This story teaches me that anything else can and should wait for this call to be answered.

According to the story, for whatever reason, the temple priest and the Levite (temple assistant) who saw the man there on the ground, passed by on the other side of the road.

But wait a minute...

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These were titled people in the religious system of their day. They were leaders, as it were, in their respective rights.

Who knows? Just maybe they were on their way to go perform a religious function in the temple.

Perhaps they were on their way to go answer the call of duty and they needed to be at their duty post real quick.

But I wish they knew better. I really wish they knew that our first duty post is wherever there's a need to love people.

Notice Jesus didn't tell us where they were going and what they were going to do because neither is important when a need to love someone presents itself.

Leadership Lessons on Love

Even today I see leaders drive people to be more productive and result oriented. These are good things in themselves but getting the work done isn't the most important thing.

Many leadership books will tell you it doesn't matter how the work is done, just make sure it gets done.

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That's so not right. These leaders sometimes forget that there's something more important than the work.

As believers we must realise that we play by a different set of rules. It matters how the work is done. It also matters when the work is done.

Is the work done at the expense of loving the people you lead? Is the work done before you take care of the people you lead?

The work should be done with the people, not at the expense of the people. Great leaders put people first. Love the people and they will get the work done and break records for you as they do so.

Thanks for stopping by.