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The challenge of submission A few nights ago, my daughter asked me, "When I become a Momma, will I know everything like you know everything?" That is the thinking of a child. Children think their parents know everything and that kids are expected to obey their parents. With that same reasoning, in the minds of some people, followers are expected to obey their leaders (who must know everything!). Now, that is not the teaching on submission that I heard from Loren Cunningham!
Sometimes the teaching on a submissive heart and attitude was translated by leaders into black and white: you're either submitted or in rebellion. There was little or no room to discuss or ask questions - even in the right attitude. And in some followers, there was a wide-open embracing of the submission principle, just like my daughter, who thought I knew everything - and that I made no mistakes.
Were we not sometimes too childlike in obeying our leaders? And maybe when the leader shows his or her faults, we respond like teenagers who just discovered that Mom & Dad are flawed and can make mistakes.
I had a difficult experience in YWAM, and it could have hurt me. But being on outreach staff and being so often on my own with a team, I had to dig in and listen to God's voice and instructions, and He led me out of the fire. This is how it happened...
The outreach leader accused me of a major character flaw. I cried out in my heart to the Lord that this was wrong and asked Him how I should respond. The Lord said, "He doesn't know what he's talking about, but you respond rightly anyway." I did what the Lord asked of me, and for the first and only time, I prayed that the outreach would end early. God did it through no action on my part. Although it wasn't easy, I was able to walk away without being burned.
The Lord teaches us to walk through these things as followers; but it is necessary to see that leaders can make mistakes too, and to be able to trust the Lord in the midst of faulty leadership.
Ask the Lord how to respond in the midst of your 'fire.'
by Margie Limberg, YWAM Associate and former YWAM staff who lives in Germany with her husband and children. Reprinted from InTouch magazine, a ministry of YWAM Associates. Go to www.ywamassociates.com for more information.

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