When Leadership Is Deeply Personal – Part 1
We lead, not just because we have a task to do or a people to lead, and not just to bring home a paycheck, but also because we care about the mission and the people entrusted to us. We lead, not just by using our minds, but also through the engagement of our hearts.
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How Does Ash Wednesday Relate to Our Work? Part 3
Today is the last of three devotions that respond to the question: How does Ash Wednesday relate to our work? Though the official recognition of Ash Wednesday happened two days ago, the fact of our mortality – the central meaning of the holiday – remains. We may not have ashes on our foreheads today, but we are still made from dust, and to dust we will return.
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How Does Ash Wednesday Relate to Our Work? Part 2
Both holy ashes on Ash Wednesday and on-the-job frustrations in the present, point in the same ultimate direction – to Jesus, to his saving death on Good Friday and his victorious resurrection on Easter.”
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How Does Ash Wednesday Relate to Our Work? Part 1
Ash Wednesday reminded me – and still reminds me – that death is one of the great “levelers” in our world. No matter how powerful or wealthy you might be, no matter how influential your leadership, you will die, just like every other human being.
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Talking About God at Work, Part 3
So far this week we’ve seen in Joseph an example of someone who talked about God in the workplace. He did this in an honest, straightforward, and humble way.
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Talking About God at Work, Part 2
In yesterday’s Life for Leaders devotion, I began reflecting on the relevance for us of Joseph’s talking about God in his conversation with Pharaoh.
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Talking About God at Work, Part 1
The first thing that impresses me about Joseph’s mention of God is how simple and straightforward it is. He didn’t explain anything about the God he served. He didn’t go on about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He simply said, “God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.” He did this in a way that seemed natural, honest, and modest. He said what he believed without undue elaboration or defensiveness.
Read ArticleHumility Revisited
In the Life for Leaders devotion from a week ago, I brought up the subject of Joseph’s humility. Today I want to revisit that topic because it stands out so plainly in our passage from Genesis 41.
Read ArticleHow Can I Deal with Disappointment?
Genesis doesn’t tell us how Joseph dealt with his disappointment. The story leads us to believe that Joseph continued on much as he had done before, faithfully managing the prison, serving both the prisoners and the chief jailer (38:21-23). We are not told, however, how Joseph felt or how he prayed during this time.
Read ArticleA Leader Speaks the Truth, Even When It’s Bad News
Joseph shows that he has the character of a strong leader in his ability to speak hard truth.
Read ArticleGod Is in the Middle of Our Mess
God is holy, set apart from us and our sinfulness. God is perfect, in whom there is not the slightest imperfection. God is good, untainted by evil. And yet, God condescends to be active in our lives, to work in and through sinful, imperfect, evil people. God chooses to be in the middle of our mess. We see this throughout Scripture, especially in Genesis 38.
Read ArticleDon’t Let Hatred Harden Your Heart
I read the closing verses of Genesis 37 with sadness and wonder. I am sad for Jacob, who is grieving what he believes to be the death of his son Joseph. And I wonder how Joseph’s brothers could allow their own father to feel grief they knew to be unfounded.
Read ArticleGod’s Mysterious Weavings
“And they took Joseph to Egypt.” If you know the story of Joseph, then you know how this little sentence is filled with significance. Moreover, if you’re familiar with the wider story of Israel, then you know that this sentence is the beginning of the most formative story in the Old Testament—the “Exodus” of God’s people from Egypt. It all began when Joseph was taken to Egypt by the Ishmaelites.
Read ArticleMessed Up Families: Will We Never Learn?
We see it all the time. Children imitate their parents—not only in sweet ways, but also in bitter ones. The dysfunctions of one generation are so often passed on to the next. …
Read ArticleSustainability: Not as New as You Might Think
I can’t quite remember when I first heard people talking about sustainability. I expect it was sometime in the last fifteen years or so. Now, I run into this word practically every day. (You may be interested to learn that Google’s Ngram Viewer, which measures the frequency of word usage in literature from 1500 through 2008, demonstrates an explosion of usage of “sustainability” in the last twenty years, after almost no use of the word prior to 1990.)
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