Being In the Way by Not Being In the Way

He had been the CEO for years. His leadership, not without fault, had been the guiding light of the company. If anyone could say, “I, being in the way, the LORD led me,” it would have been this man. But things began to happen. He started dropping important balls. Others noticed and took measures to protect him from hurting himself and the company. Then things deteriorated badly and he needed to exercise perhaps the greatest leadership of his career. He needed to prepare the company for the next CEO.

The most difficult decisions we make are those decisions which lead us out of familiar paths for the sake of those we care about. It begins early as we learn to back away from managing the lives of our children.

We love to look for permanence in an impermanent world. This is especially true in the roles we play in life and how long we have played a particular role and whether or not we have “married” the role. David recognized this and allowed his men to shoo him out of the battlefield when he could no longer keep up with the pace. He also recognized it in time to save the kingdom by stepping down so Solomon could move into the office with his own leadership skills.

Few think of preparing the way for the next person; and when we do we make the mistake of trying to box him in to the way we did things. Being in the way sometimes means moving out of the way. It is not only preparing the way for someone else to be led by God unencumbered by our shadow; it is also preparing ourselves to embrace the new way of our own lives. There’s more to following Christ than what we know today.

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