Picked up a new book to read this week. It's Compassionate Leadership: Rediscovering Jesus' Radical Leadership Style by Ted Engstrom & Paul Cedar. One of the chapters I read this morning was talking about "The Perils of Compassionate Leadership," looking at some of the temptations & dangers that leaders face when they seek to lead like Christ.

One quote hit me, especially. It was from Charles Spurgeon...

Success exposes a man to the pressure of people and thus tempts him to hold on to his gains by means of fleshly methods and practices, and to let himself be ruled wholly by the dictatorial demands of incessant expansion. Success can go to my head, and will unless I remember that it is God who accomplished the work, that He can continue to do so without any help, and that He will be able to make out with other means whenever He cuts me down to size.

Perhaps what struck me was the fact that here was Spurgeon, a man of high faith & esteem, admitting his own struggle with the perils of leadership - especially when it came to popularity and the esteems and demands from others in his life. Perhaps it was Him saying the clear reality that God is God and not only can, but will, step in and cut us down to size and use other means to accomplish what He wants.

Now, I don't feel like I struggle with popularity or feelings of granduere - but I still feel this parallel between me & Him, between my feelings & desires and His will & Kingdom. Much of what I wrote about yesterday about feeling 'caught in the middle' of sorts.