Six months into my first head of school position, a good friend stopped by to catch up. After the obligatory campus tour and the greeting of teachers and students, we stepped into my office, closed the door, and then the real conversation started. I was asked the very pointed, “How is it REALLY going?” question. That was definitely a conversation to have behind closed doors. Honestly, it was going as well as I expected—I was learning new things on a daily basis, some great and some that needed work. However, it was the following question and answer that has stuck with me for the last ten years.

Me: “It seems like it takes hours of my and my team’s time to get a family to finally choose our school for enrollment. I didn’t think it would be such hard work for each student.”

My friend, who broke into my personal space and was right in my face, said, “Did you think this would be easy? You are doing God’s work. Look at the disciples. Was it easy for them to drop everything and follow Jesus? No. Depend on working hard at God’s work, and maybe the harder it is, the more you will know that it truly is his work.”

Me: “Phew. You are absolutely right”

Even though we may be leaders, we must continue to take the posture of the learner. There is a rhythm of serving where God has called us. Like the disciples, we are sent into spaces that can be joy-filled but hard, where there can be a personal cost to our loving service, and where we have to be self-giving instead of self-serving. How do we move from learner to disciple to leader—without losing the heart of a disciple? 

Let’s use the story of Martha and Mary as an example. Although a very familiar story in the book of Luke, the lessons that I continue to learn from it continue. (By nature, I’m a Martha, more of a doer first and then listen. I’m praying to recover!) When Jesus comes into their home, he has much to tell of his travels and lessons to teach those he loves. Culturally speaking, it was men who would be sitting at the feet of Jesus, not women—but Mary, hungry to learn, joins them. Martha, in a huff, begrudgingly serves food and grumpily works in the kitchen. Mary chose better.

Martha:

• Missed the opportunity to sit at the feet of Jesus.
• Was distracted from the most important thing she could do
• Got angry and anxious
• Let her attention to Jesus be taken away

Do you always choose better? I don’t. In the busy days of school leadership, with decisions to make and voices to be heard, we get distracted from the most important, main thing in our lives. The pace of our world often overtakes us, and we often have what I have heard called continuous partial attention. I wonder if this is how we could describe Martha in the story. I imagine that she may have caught some of Jesus’ words, she may have even been moved or intrigued by them, but that didn’t stop her from attending to what she thought were the urgent needs of her guests. In her multitasking, she missed the good stuff. 

God longs to speak to us through his Word and through his people, but are we sitting at his feet daily in order to listen? Are we praying appropriately to hear? In this case and in our lives, we might have to stop the serving in order to listen. And then we can get about the going and doing, filled with God’s peace, promises, and blessings.

I’m reading through the Bible chronologically this year for the first time. Reading through Chronicles and Kings was a bit arduous, but through the good king/bad king stories, there was a verse that struck me deeply. In 2 Chronicles 25, we hear about King Amaziah. The chapter begins as most do in Chronicles, but in verse two, it reads, “And he (Amaziah) did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, yet not with a whole heart.” That last phrase stopped me in my tracks. We are to serve, love, honor God with our WHOLE heart. When it comes to our very distractible work life, where we often find ourselves in a loop of continuous partial attention, our heart gets fragmented all too often. 

I want my heart to be fully focused and given over to God. He has given us the work we get to do, so his demand of our whole heart is not too much to ask for. One way for us to sit at the feet of Jesus is to daily serve wholeheartedly, trusting full for God’s strength to focus in on him first and others second. It is then that we can LEAD WELL in the good, hard work God has put before us.

Leaders – we want to hear your stories of leadership. We learn in community, and your story will undoubtedly encourage and/or challenge another school leader. Talk to Jenn about submission ideas.