They can define us. They can scare us. They can remind us.

As I grow in my leadership journey, I feel more and more of the weight that my actions as a leader has on those around me. As I deal with issues in our family, our church and our community, it was by watching the development of the H1N1 virus (swine flu)- in the media, government, and community- that it occurred to me that as leaders, action is a great measure of our impact.

Pro-action – seeing what is ahead and strategically moving toward it
Re-action – measuring the moment or the past and making adjustments
or
In-action – maintaining status-quo, on purpose or in ignorance

None of these actions come as an easy answer or without consternation or consequences. There will always be opposition and second-guessing to any of the three. Heck, one of them is doing something by doing nothing… They are always either too fast or too slow. Too much or too little. Too easy or too hard. Its overwhelming and impossible, really.

So, instead of being completely overwhelmed, I decide to rejoice because it all forces me to rely on God! And in relying on God we actually live out what we say we believe. The thinking is this: it does not matter what we say we believe, if our actions do not support it, do we really believe it in the first place?

In the New Testament, James puts it this way:
You see that [Abraham’s] faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,”and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.
-James 2:22-24

So as a leader today, no matter the action. Proaction, reaction or inaction… my prayer is this:
1. That faith would guide my actions.
2. That my actions would inform my faith.
3. That others would see actions based on faith and be impacted toward Christ.