We're Following the...Who?

Have you ever wondered why you have been set as a leader for others? Well I have. A lot. Sometimes I wonder if I can really be strong enough to lead people. What if someone comes to you for something but yet you are struggling the same way, can you really help them without being a hypocrite? Or what if you are not as grounded in the truth as you thought and you are really leading people the wrong way and yet you think you are telling them the right thing? Some days you think you need to be perfect in order to be a leader. Some days you do not feel like you are strong enough to even lead people. I know I want to be the leader I was called to be. Some days I feel like I cannot even do that. I have recently come up with an analogy that displays the "job" or the responsibilities of a leader.

When you go to a historical site or a tour of any kind you will always have a tour guide. Without a guide you would have no idea where to go. You would have no real idea as to what you were looking at nor the significance of what you are looking at. You may not even know where the start is and where the end is. It is just a whole lot easier with a tour guide, isn't it? A leader can do what a tour guide does. They can lead others to the next place, the next step in life. They can have the responsibilities to help people slow down and help them understand what they are looking at in life. They can help people learn the information, or rather help them become rooted in the truth.

However, there's a catch. Tour guides need to learn the information, they need to memorize it and know it by heart. They need to go through the tour themselves, and they need to apply the information to the correct place. Then and only then, when the guide has gone through it all and memorized all the information, can they lead others on the tour. A leader has to be rooted in the truth or God's word and has to go through their own struggles and challenges to be able to come out strong and able to lead the way God wants them to. A leader needs to be able to apply wisdom in the correct circumstances. Just like a guide needs to learn the information from the historians, a leader has to learn the information from the history-maker.