What Makes A Great Leader? …Hump Day readers I have a question for you: what makes a great leader? I don’t want to get into politics-but, as we look around us in our country and other countries, it seems that leadership has become a different “persona.” So, I am going to share a true story that I’ve used before because the Holy Spirit urged me to do so … here goes:

A rich businessman once held a dinner party to which Calvin Coolidge had been invited. After Coolidge left, the man remarked that he thought Coolidge would one day make a good president of the United States. Some disagreed, feeling Coolidge lacked the personality and charisma needed to hold such a high office, others said he was too much of a quiet man. Suddenly the young 6-year-old child of the business man who held the party spoke up quite loudly saying, “Well, I like him you want to know why?” Then she held up her pointer finger with a bandage around it and said, “He was the only one at the party who asked me about my hurt finger. And that’s exactly why he would be a great president.”

Out of the mouths of babes we find compassion and care, of which both seem to be locked up in hardened hearts. Remember when God asked Moses to go speak to the Pharaoh?

“Moses raised another objection to God: “Master, please, I don’t talk well. I’ve never been good with words, neither before nor after you spoke to me. I stutter and stammer.” God said, “And who do you think made the human mouth? And who makes some mute, some deaf, some sighted, some blind? Isn’t it I, God? So, get going. I’ll be right there with you—with your mouth! I’ll be right there to teach you what to say.”

So again, the question “what makes a great leader?” Many folks think it is charisma, power, and mostly doing what the people want even if it isn’t good. Today, most of our leaders look to power and money rather than a good character and heart of compassion. Those who want attractive personalities in our leaders are often nothing more than a façade to mask their shortcomings. Things like charisma and an attractive personality aren’t necessarily bad. But a good leader must have much more.

Again, what makes a great leader – is it you, is it me? Like Moses, we have abilities but we are afraid, not sure, and we count ourselves out of the idea of a leader. How sad this is because in each person God has given us talents to use for the good. We must look inside those gifts God has given us and DO SOMETHING WITH THEM! Stop counting yourself out because you think you don’t have the right personality. Again, speak to God first, share your fears but then ask “what can I do Lord to help?”

Our country and our world needs spiritual leaders—thousands of them. Are you ready to step up to use the gifts God gave you? We need compassionate leaders who care for one another. We need leaders with wisdom and good character. We need…need…need—for Christians to stand up in the name of God and act as a child of God to help the wounded, the lost, and yes, the worst of leaders who need to hear from God to change their horrible ways and do what God has asked us to do…be kind, compassionate, helpful, caring, giving grace and joy; and most of all – sharing the love of God that can change us and the whole world.

“She held up her pointer finger with a bandage around it and said, “He was the only one at the party who asked me about my hurt finger.” Think about this, and do likewise. Amen.