Leadership And Suffering
Leadership and suffering are synonymous. As salacious as that opening reads, in twenty plus years of leading and studying leadership, anecdote and data bare this out—if you are going to lead at any level, you are going to suffer to great and small degrees.
Take note of the presidencies you have observed in your lifetime, have you noticed how dramatically each of them aged while in office? After only four years, each seemed to age at least ten. The weight of the role took its toll, and it found expression in their rapid greying and wrinkling.
In nearly every arena you will find that great leadership is accompanied by great suffering. I am convinced that in order to be a great leader you must endure trial and suffering, and you must learn from each season of it.
For those of you reading who are familiar, or unfamiliar with the Scriptures, consider Paul, arguably one of the greatest leaders in human history.
Before he became a disciple of Jesus, he was a leader among the religious elite. After he encountered Christ and experienced his first suffering—instant blindness—he went on to make history by planting numerous churches, raising up leaders, and writing 2/3 of our New Testament—he was a phenomenal leader.
But what shaped him? In Second Corinthians eleven he tells us:
"Are they ministers of Christ? I am talking like a madman—I am a better one: with far greater labours, far more imprisonments, with countless floggings, and often near death. Five times I have received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked; for a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers and sisters; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked. 28 And, besides other things, I am under daily pressure because of my anxiety for all the churches."
Flogged/Rods/Lashes
Imprisoned
Left for Dead
Stoned
Shipwrecked
Adrift at Sea
Danger. Danger. Danger. Seven times he uses the word DANGER!
Sleepless, Hungry, Thirsty, Cold, Naked
AND Stressed from the Church
These were the things Paul suffered, at least those he actually listed. Why? Because Jesus said this much: "I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name [Acts 9:16]." Why? Because these things made him the compassionate, strong, resolute, kind, vigilant, humble leader I—and many others—come to know.
All great leadership is forged in the cauldron of suffering.
The idea of it is disconcerting, I know, but history has confirmed its truth. Your suffering and mine may not be to the degree that Paul endured, but if we are to lead, we will suffer.
Suffering cultivates the heart and hews the character necessary to handle success and steward influence. And how we respond to it will determine the type of leader we become.
A great theologian, Augustine, once wrote, "Our pilgrimage on earth cannot be exempt from trial. We actually progress by means of trial. We do not know ourselves except through trial, or receive a crown except after victory."
I want you to be a great leader, one that changes the world within the scope of your influence. I want to see all of your gifts exposed and applied to the great issues that face our world today. I want to see you be and do all that you can be and do—but you must accept the cost of leadership.
If you are going to lead, you are going to suffer. How will you respond?