JANUARY 23 • TRUE LEADERSHIP
Loyalty
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13
I love the story of Ruth: “But Ruth said, ‘Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.’ ” What a great example of incredible loyalty. I may (emphasis on may) have one friend of 45 years who we feel that way about each other. Maybe…
I personally think that this should be what young pastors say to the first church they start with! Okay — is that a little much for our work environment? Especially if our leaders don’t care about us this much? Maybe. But we should treat our own people like this — there should be very little that pulls us apart. We should hire very carefully and then work very hard to grow our people and love them as we grow them in their life, leadership, and career.
I don’t fire people for messing up, or not having the skills. Instead, I train them for the future. There really is only one thing that parts me from my team, lack of change. Well, there is a second thing — if you do something illegal, immoral, or unethical we will most likely part ways (depending on the type of relationship of course — i.e., you can’t disown family). Although, depending on what it is, if you have a serious, real change of heart and change of behavior from those things, I might keep you on with serious scrutiny and accountability. I now know better who you are so I can help you grow. But there needs to be a paradigm shift in your thinking and acting.
I have committed to you and you have committed to me. Therefore, loyalty to one another is crucial — and needs to be stated from the very beginning and adhered to! If I work for you, I need to be loyal to you — and it’s good to define what that loyalty looks like. And even if you don’t keep up your side, I need to keep my side. We will need to talk about it significantly and deal with broken boundaries, but I will remain loyal.
Pray: Lord, teach me loyalty; teach me to BE loyal to those I commit to; teach me loyalty to my family, friends, and work.
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