God understands leadership

Day 60
OT Reading: Numbers 26-27
NT Reading: Mark 8:22-38

I'm not a leadership guru. Frankly, I don't know that I know enough about anything to have the title "guru" attached to my name in any capacity. I mean...to be a guru you really have to know what you're talking about. And when it comes to leadership, let's just say the song "Over My Head" by the group The Fray is basically my theme song. But as I figure all this "leadership" stuff out, I realize that God really demonstrates over and over again that He knows what He's doing.

Take our passage in Numbers today. Moses is going to pass from this life to the next and God tells him to appoint a successor. Now, Moses could have tried to rule until he simply fell over dead, but then there may have been a struggle for power or division or just mass chaos as the nation of Israel tried to figure out what was next. (By the way, all those are results we will see from Israel in the future, when they don't follow this leadership principle.) So God makes a clear directive, "Appoint Joshua to be your successor."

To this point Joshua has been a general, a scout, and perhaps most importantly serving as Moses' personal attendant. Moses has kept him close, allowing him to learn along the way. And now, after years of running errands while trying to understand what it takes to lead a nation, it was time for Joshua to step into the limelight. From now on he, not Moses, will serve as the leader of an entire nation of people.

Most often leaders do not follow this principle either out of insecurity (fear of being replaced), or oversight (it does not happen accidentally). But what God (and subsequently several leadership books) show us is that when we replace ourselves several advantages are at work:

1. We get to have an influence on who will follow us and how things will be done in the future;

2. The organization (church, company, team, whatever) will be stronger because of wisdom passed down through generations;

3. The load often begins to be shared amongst others.

And that all makes sense to me. Sure, I don't have all this down yet. But I'm openly looking for opportunities to pass on the little I do understand to others. So while I may never be a "leadership guru" maybe I can apply for the title of "mentoring" or "training" guru instead.