Servant Leadership: Carry On

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I just get tired. I get tired of doing all the work and watching someone else get all the benefit from it. I get tired of doing the right thing and ending up on the wrong side of the promotion. I get tired of working 80-hour weeks to keep the ship afloat while the boss preaches work-life balance.

But as servant leaders, we’re expected to get tired, but we’re also expected to pull ourselves up, cinch up our boot straps, and carry on.

“Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” (Gal 6:8-9, NIV)

When I get tired, I have to remind myself, I don’t strive for the promotion. I strive to be an example. I don’t work hard for accolades from my boss. I work hard to represent my God.

I’m not working double shifts to keep the ship afloat so that I can be praised as the key to success. I work double because my sacrifice and service to the company are exactly how God plants His seed. Because some day, “at the proper time,” someone will ask me why I do it at all, and that’s when I need to be bold and ready, and say, “I work to please my God, not my boss. He will give me my just reward.”

Servant leader, it is either all true or it is all lies. Either God will reward our faithfulness like He did Abraham, or He won’t. Either Christ died so we could have an advocate in heaven, or He didn’t. Either Jesus’ blood was sufficient for all our sins once for all – or it wasn’t. It’s all or nothing.

And if it’s all true, then God knows the day and the hour when He will reward us for doing good. God knows why we work hard and give our best at work. God sees and remembers when we sacrifice so that someone else might advance. God offered eternal life, we simply have to sow to please the Spirit, not the boss.

So, the next time you get tired, just remember. God sees you. He remembered you on the cross long before you were born. And He will reward you eternally in heaven. Be genuinely happy when others gain from your efforts. If they don’t know Christ, then you have had the opportunity to plant a seed that He will water and grow. And if they do, then Galatians 6:10 is all the more applicable.

“Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”

Carry on.

(Photo: teamariana.org)