Advent Reflections 01
Liz shares weekly reflections on the period of advent.
I have often found that my greatest leadership lessons come from my kids.
This was one of those moments. ‘Look mummy the lights are making the darkness more beautiful!’
We were on the school run, the Christmas lights on people’s houses were switching on and my 5-year-old daughter Jessie was calling out what she saw.
In Matthew 18:3, Jesus calls for childlike faith saying that without it you can’t enter the kingdom of God. This moment with Jessie was like a spotlight on that verse.
‘This verse pictures faith as the simple, helpless, trusting dependence of those who have no resources of their own. Like children, they have no achievements and no accomplishments to offer or with which to commend themselves.’ (John MacArthur Bible commentary).
There is nothing wrong with achieving and knowing your accomplishments, but as a Christian leader there is a challenge to adopt a posture of a child. It is a healthy reminder to recognise that without Jesus our resources, accomplishments and successes only go so far. Although this verse isn’t actually about listening to the wisdom of children, I find I have a heart check on a regular basis when I am hearing from my own children or a young person and the wayJesus is calling them to lead.
There is an abandoned trust and an awareness that they have nothing else to go on other than what God is showing them to do that I find inspiring and challenging.
Christmas is a perfect reminder to take our temperature when it comes to having childlike faith. We can use this season to pay attention to the joy, the games, the excitement and expectation, which grows our childlike muscles. And then let it affect your heart, your trust and your expectations of what Jesus might show you about your leadership in this season.