follow the leader

When I was a boy I sometimes got a sort of 'educated' comic. I mean, I got other comics as well, sometimes, but this one was part of the deal.

It was called Look & Learn. Which I think is still on the go.

Its title, I guess, gives the lesson we need to learn. Keep your eyes (and ears) wide open and there's lots for you to learn.

The book of Proverbs in the Bible is a kind of earlier age's version of the magazine.

There are all sorts of ways we learn. All sorts of ways we hear the 'voice' of God. Because there are all sorts of 'signals' out there, 'signposts' which discreetly point out where we should be going.

Often it's like that at the school. I don't get to give the message at the Assemblies they hold there each week. At least, not so far this year. And that's us now some six or seven months into the year (the school year, that is).

You maybe wonder why I'm there at all. (Sometimes I do too!).

I help, most times, in handing out certificates to children who've done well. I generally get to lead the prayer, which there is most weeks. But other than that I'm mainly simply there.

Present. A face becoming familiar to the children as they grow up through the school.

But it's often the case that the message the children receive has a message from God to myself. My antennae are up! I'm listening for the 'signals', the tell-tale signs which build for me a picture of what God is tryng to say to me.

Today was like that as well. Today it was the youngest ones. The P1s to P3s.

One of the deputy heads was leading the thing today (the head was away). And the 'value' the school is majoring on this month is that of 'leadership'.

You probably get the drift of where this all is heading. And why it's all so personal!

The assembly began with a clip from a children's video (from a good few years back now). I don't have a clue what the video really was all about. But the clip was sort of 'self-standing' and its message was loud and clear.

The clip had a song as its focus, with children dancing along, expressing the point of the song.

'Follow the leader'.

It felt like a God-given 'signal'. A gentle and subtle reminder from God as to what he has called me to be.

Leaders give a lead. And most times that just means they have to take the lead as well. It felt like the Lord was somehow in his providence reminding me of that.

I have to lead. And simply trust that others follow.

Rather than the other way around - as in working away and waiting 'til others have seen that this is the way, and only then heading off with them all.

The clip from the children's video was really very striking in the lesson that I learned. Not least because it was so very visual.

The guy out front, so desperately vulnerable. Taking the lead - and if no one else had followed he'd have looked a total fool.

But that's the risk that leaders take. And I see that that's how I must lead as well.

So the school was good! Look & Learn stuff for me.

The service at lunch-time was sort of the same. I was leading the worship, reading the scripture and offering up the opening prayer. And attending to the sound system.

The talk, though, was given by Greta. She's really very gifted in this way.

It was Paul we were thinking about today. Paul well up in years and now at the end of his life. (He was one of the earlier followers of Jesus. A very able man.).

And again, this man was a leader. Prepared to go out on his own. And he did. But he knew that he wasn't alone, the Lord would always be there.

And he just took the risks of leadership and blazed a trail throughout his life for others who would follow. He followed Jesus. And in doing so, he gave a lead to others who would follow him. In following Jesus, if you see what I mean.

But the same basic challenge, the same crucial lesson, the same simple message from God.

Get out there and lead. Give the lead and take the lead and .. well, basically be a leader!

It all sort of tied in with my preparation, too, as I thought ahead to Sunday's worship services. So I think I'm getting the picture!