Deciding where you’d like to go is the easiest part of the journey.  Figuring out how to get there is where the real challenge begins.  How good is your sense of direction?  Do you get lost easily or do you have a knack for finding your way?  I personally love the challenge of finding new places by myself without the help of GPS or asking for directions. I must admit however that my wife doesn’t get as enthused about these adventures as I do.

No matter “where” you are going, you not only need to know “how” to get there but it’s also pretty important to know “why” you are going.  Journeys without purpose are just wanderings.  Leaders who value action are prone to charging ahead toward the next achievement without taking the time to reflect and gain perspective and a clear purpose for why they are going.

All too often we pursue the wrong things for the wrong reasons. Many who finally arrive at what they envisioned to be a place of success, can experience a lack of fulfillment and left thirsting for something more.  If their destination of success was based on temporal gain it will usually turn out to be like a mirage and fail to truly satisfy them.  The book of James provides us with wise council regarding this very issue.

Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.”  How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.  What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.”  (James 4:13-15 NLT)

Setting out on a geographical journey is one thing, venturing out on a leadership journey is quite another.  As a leader, you take others with you.  They trust you and are depending on you to show them the way.  It’s a huge responsibility to lead others “from here to there.”
Yielding your plans to God’s greater plan is essential in finding true success.  Only in seeking a destination that aligns with God’s purpose for your life will you experience the joy of success.  You must seek your sense of direction from Him.

Let me invite you as a Christian leader to join me today in this very simple yet profound prayer:  “Lord, guide my plans today that they be according to Your will and grant me the wisdom to discern and trust Your plan for me. Give me the courage to lead well by placing my confidence in You.”  Amen.

“I saw the error to be, that men think that it will be something seen by the natural eye; but ’tis spiritual discernment that is needed, the eye of God in his people.”  ~ Margaret MacDonald (1815-1840)