Do you lead or do you follow…. Both.
I looked at a few quotes on this topic and there are a few good ones that talk about being both a leader and a follower. This one by Aristotle I think is good. It says, “He who cannot be a good follower cannot be a good leader.”
It might be an odd concept to say, let’s be both leaders and followers. But I think it is important for us to learn to be both.
In our world we are told over and over to lead and not follow because then we can decide and determine what we want. We can lead the way of our lives and no one else will then determine what we can or cannot do. But as Christians we are taught to follow as the Lord leads us. This is a big difference.
Luke 9:23 says, “Then he said to the crowd, ‘If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me.’”
When we give our lives to Christ, we go from being leaders of our own lives to following what God has for us. We need to learn to follow God daily so that we can then lead others to Him.
About 3½ months ago we hatched 9 ducklings and we kept them separated from our other 3 adult ducks, but once we introduced the ducklings to our grown ducks we would watch as the grown ducks would chase them off the ducklings and try to teach them the way of our pond and pull rank to let them know who was in charge. But now that the ducklings are almost full grown and there are 9 of them our other adult ducks have now joined them and more or less follow them.
I thought that was an interesting visual. You know we can go about our lives and lead others and teach them so much and sometimes there can be something that happens that changes your rank, your position, your perspective or your social status and then you learn to follow along because there had been change.
But we need to be careful and mindful, when that happens, of what we are following. We need to ask God and make sure what we are following is what He has for us and that we are just following the crowd.
Mark 10:42-45 says, “So Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Both leading and following I think are good strengths that really show good character. It shows are adapt well.
I’ve been pretty independent my whole life. My parents taught me how to take care of things and they never really worried about me. They would literally tell others that they weren't worried about me. They knew I’d be ok.
I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a leader or a follower. I really think I am both.
When something came up though, I would stubbornly try to prove that I could do it on my own and even if I struggled, I wouldn’t ask for help. It was like trying to pick up something awkward and not asking for help but struggling to prove I could do it myself.
But when I fully devoted my life to Christ, I learned that I didn't need to try to do it all on my own. I learned even more that I needed to follow Christ above all things and to do that daily.
This meant asking for help and seeking others who were more knowledgeable and ones that I could follow in their walk with God and learn from them.
When seeing others walk out their relationship with the Lord I would, and still do, watch and learn from them on ways I could be a better follower of Christ and maybe even adapt some good things from others, to improve my walk with the Lord.
Matthew 16:25 says, “If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.”
When we become Christ followers we are giving up our ways and following His.
We need to daily learn to follow the Lord in all we do and then go out and lead others to do the same.