It is necessary to be reminded when coaching leaders to remember God’s part. Clients, particularly those in any form of leadership may be very anxious to move forward, to start seeing things happen or to create results. But God may have His own agenda, that of forming and preparation for a future assignment.
As coaches, we need to be discerning of this.
As a potential client of one of our CCN coaches, you need to understand that we will be asking you to consider if there may be a larger purpose in your circumstances, adversity and challenges. You need to be increasingly aware that this time spent ‘waiting’ may in fact be the very thing God is using to prepare you for something special, a work with your name assigned to it.
The following article by Pat Pinera of Life and Leadership Coaching captures this reality and serves to challenge us all to reconsider the frustration we often experience when things aren’t unfolding just as we think they should …
Following Christ in Leadership
Only 13 verses representing 30 years of Jesus life! – Can you believe it! I didn’t realize it either until it was pointed out to me. Between the stories of Jesus as a baby and the time He was baptized at approximately 30 years of age, there are only 13 verses (Luke 2:40-52.)
So what was he doing during those thirty years? The Bible tell us that He “grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.” (Luke 2:40) He was in a time of Preparation! Then He spent only three years in ministry, creating, building, and empowering His team to carry on His ministry. We don’t often think about Jesus’ leadership skills but He must have done a pretty good job of developing a high performance team since he pulled together a team of unlikely suspects who (with God’s help!) built a church that is still here centuries later. And how many of us have developed followers who would die for us? Now don’t get me wrong, God is God and we are not! But we also have God’s power available to help us to become great leaders. We can certainly learn about leadership from Jesus and the other Biblical examples God has shared with us as role models.
What stage are you in? How much time have you spent in “Preparation?” So many times we short change that part of the cycle. Jesus spent 91% of his life in Preparation! What does preparation look like for us in business and ministry today? Certainly it includes spending time with God – in prayer and in His Word. We need to seek His will and wait upon His call. Waiting is hard for me. I’m a very effective do’er. I’ve still got a long way to go, but I’m getting better at it. I am trying really hard to stop and wait upon Him to open doors rather than pushing my way through in a hurry to check yet another thing off my task list as complete. Can anyone relate?
When I searched my NIV Bible program for ‘wait’ there were 135 instances. Not all in this context of course, but a lot of great Scriptures reminding us to wait upon the Lord. I looked up “hurry” and it appeared 42 times and all but a handful were instances where people hurried, not instruction from godly people. Here’s one of the ‘wait’ Scriptures that really stood out for me:
Psalms 37:3-7 Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for Him …
I hope in the coming days and weeks you are able to “be still, and wait patiently for Him.”
Pat Pinera
Life and Leadership Coaching
