leadership pressure cooker

When I was young, my mom would use a pressure cooker to cook meals for my dad, brothers and me.  The pressure cooker is somewhat of a cross between a crock pot and microwave … cooks fast yet keeps all the good stuff in the veggies and meat that you are cooking. I thought of that cooker today as I sat in the Leadership Summit, listening to some of the world’s best leaders.  Tons of valuable information coming at me so quickly, yet God slowed it down enough to allow many nuggets to take root in my heart.

There’s not nearly enough space here to write about everything I took in today, but one impacting reminder came from Gary Haugen, the founder of the International Justice Mission.  He talked about leading through difficult times and noted that the most important trait of leading in tough situations is deep spiritual health, not things like intelligence, experience or education.  When we are healthy at the deepest level, nothing God calls us to is too messy, too hard or too impossible to overcome. Gary’s organization has liberated thousands of victims of atrocious injuctices like child prostitution, slavery and other unimaginable horrors. Gary reminded us all that God calls us to do things that seem hopeless and beyond our reach because that is when you have to rely on God.  If we are to prevail in life, our faith must run deep, our devotional life must be sincere and our strength must be in God.  Get in situations over your head and allow God to grow your faith and in that you’ll grow as a leader in His Kingdom.

~ by Brian Kruckenberg on August 7, 2008.