Foundations

What are you building your life upon?

This is a great question for anyone, but is an essential one for every leader. What you build your life on will shape you as a leader. What shapes you as a leader informs how you will lead. How you lead impacts the influence you can have.

Take a moment, be honest, are the following things important to you?

- What people think about me

- What I achieve in life

- Having money & the right possessions

- The freedom to be who I want to be

- Fulfilling my life's purpose

- Recognition & acknowledgement for all I achieve

- Setting the right goals for my life

Is your answer yes, yes and yes?

None of these things are wrong. In many ways, they are all good and powerful motivators for us, as individuals and as leaders. They can provide us with a sense of purpose. However, they need to come with a **warning** as the pursuit of these will be shaping who we are becoming. Who we are becoming will play out in how we lead.

Is my life all about my image, my achievements, my possessions, my freedom to be whoever I want to be, my purpose, my recognition and the successful completion of my goals? If these are the principles on which I build my life, then how I process decisions as a leader will be influenced by them. I may make decisions as a leader based on what's best for me, not necessarily on what's best for whoever or whatever it is I am leading.

As Christian leaders we don't build on principles or processes. We don't build on success or achievement. We don't build on recognition or our own sense of self-importance.

We build on a person.

We build on Jesus and on the truth of His Word.

We build on the right foundations.

Dig deep into the Word of God.

Open it every day.

Read it.

Learn it.

Meditate on it.

Establish the Word in your heart.

Build on it.

Allow scripture to become the measure of your success. To know that Jesus plus nothing else truly is enough. That obedience to how Jesus calls us to live, and the seemingly ordinariness of living that kind of life, rather than pursuing an epic one, is sufficient.

Then when we face tougher times, we will be sustained. The fickle things like image, crowds cheering and the collection of stuff may come and go. God's Word remains. And if we build a life, build our leadership on His Word, we will remain too. We will have something worth saying. We will be people worth listening to. We will have an anchor for our decisions. We will have a hope to keep us going. And we will lead ourselves and others in the very best of ways.

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

[Matthew 7:24-27 NIV]

Love to hear your thoughts. What would you say are the challenges to building our lives and our leadership on the right foundations?