Is the Lantern informing your Leadership Journey?

For one of my Transformational Leadership classes taught by Dr. Sam Rima, I wrote a 99 page Personal Case Study entitled, “The Lady with Lantern.” 99 pages! I didn’t even know that my leadership journey had that much to talk about! However, whenever I see anything having to do with “light,” it immediately catches my attention and imagination.

So, while having my relaxing Saturday morning cup of coffee, I decided to read Psalm 119. The first stanza I read was, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path (105).” I immediately wondered, “Hmmmmmm, I wonder what Google has to say about this verse as it relates to the role of leading during tumultuous times? What does it say that could refute some of the Leadership Myths that we read about in the endless array of leadership books and articles written for business leaders, entrepreneurs and sales management leaders?”

The first entry is a quote from Charles Spurgeon, that says, “We are walkers through the city of this world, and we are often called to go out into its darkness; let us never venture there without the light-giving word, lest we slip with our feet.” Isn’t this true, that we often feel blind when faced with all the economic and market news? Doesn’t if often seem that the pathway into the future seems so murky that it’s scary to make any moves forward, for fear of falling off the cliff?

Spurgeon goes on to say, “Each person should use the word of God personally, practically, and habitually, that he may see his way, and see what lies in it.” Again, isn’t that what we need in these crazy times? To really see and to really see what lies in the uncertainty?

Spurgeon explains the concept of Lantern and why the Lantern metaphor is so powerful. “Having no fixed lamps in eastern towns, in old time each passenger carried a lantern with him, that he might not fall into the open sewer, or stumble over the heaps of ordure which defiled the road. This is a true picture of our path through this dark world: we should not know the way, or how to walk in it, if Scripture, like a blazing flambeau, did not reveal it.”

If you’d like to read more of Spurgeon’s comments on this passage, go to Eternal Life Ministries.

So, here’s the question for you to ponder, “Where do you need the a Lantern in your Leadership Journey? Where do you need clarity? Insight? Direction?” And, where are you looking for this clarity? Finally, as they say in the sales world, “How’s that working for you?”

Love it hear from you and what you’re learning about in your Leadership Journey.

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