Well, over at James‘ blog, he’s been spending the last few weeks talking about some of his own weaknesses. Not to be out-done (one of my weaknesses is being too competitive :P), I’ve decided to share something that’s been on my heart for a few days/weeks/months: I “do” things, when I should be “leading” people. 

Don’t get me wrong, doing things is incredibly important. If there weren’t things to do, there would be no purpose in leading people. When I talk about leading vs doing, I don’t mean to say that leading is cooler, better, or more important. As a pastor at LifePoint, I just think that it’s something that God has called me to.

Logical thinking, troubleshooting, and problem solving. Those are the gifts that God has given me. To use a cool “pop culture” reference, if I were to say that my God-given abilities were a power from, say,  the show Heroes, they’d be like Sylar’s. I have a knack for figuring out how stuff works. This is one of the things, I think, that makes me a natural computer programmer. I look at the problem, and eventually I find a solution. I can’t even really explain how I know that a piece of code will work. I’ve written lots of code before that I couldn’t even begin to explain, or even really understand. I look at the problem and the solution just starts to become clear, like one of those 90’s Magic Eye 3D images.

Again, there’s nothing wrong with being someone who “gets things done”. The problem is  I don’t think that I’ve done a great job in transitioning from being a “doer” to being a “leader”. In fact, my first reaction when something needs to be done at LifePoint isn’t usually: how can I empower someone else to get this done so that the task is completed and they grow personally at the same time? I wish I could say it was, but it isn’t. Usually, my response is more like: How can I do this AND all the other stuff I need to get done. Just because an employee is amazing at their job, doesn’t mean that they will be good at managing other people to do their jobs. 

At the end of the day, I have to learn to take the opportunities to learn from the leaders that God has put into my life and the experiences he allows me to have. I just want to be a good steward of what God has given me.