"The illusion of the discontented idealism convinces leaders that people, when they are given a good cause and quickened motivation, will rally to the cause. This illusion causes leaders to believe that change is possible if we can show our people but a glimpse of the Promised Land. This lie is seen as so Christian that it can't be allowed to die. We believe that the lie is our only hope for growing Christian organisations. But the lie must die if we are to lead with a limp.
Remember Moses before he led a nation, he wandered in Midian for forty years and tended sheep. Our days spent in the desert may be shorter, but they will be no less agonising because they are a season of death. A leader's dreams must die if a deep soul is to be born. Idealism may get us into the fray, but it is the loss of all we cherish that begins to form in us a heart capable of leading others reluctantly and humbly.
Disillusionment is not the end of dreaming. It is merely the end of our current reason for getting out of bed and fixing coffee. Disillusionment takes us to the question: what does it profit a man if he gains the world and loses himself? And disillusionment exposes that while we were supposedly serving the kingdom, we somehow became the king, and when we thought we were following Jesus, we inexplicably made him a servant of our dreams. The only real tragedy is the leader who never allows disillusionment to wear him to a nub and expose the godlessness of his busyness.
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But becoming disillusioned over everything that is new and better - and all that is planned, programmed, produced and promoted - allows a new hope to grow, a hope based on the coming of Jesus and the promise of a new heaven and earth. This hope allows us to be far slower, more deliberate, less grandiose, and more intentional about what we will do and also what we will refuse to sacrifice in the name of achieving a vision. Disillusionment will make us both bolder and more paradoxical leaders."
- Dan Allender, Leading with a Limp
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