Lessons on Leadership from the Little Things in Life: People Matter to God
Life is full of examples that teach us lessons. That’s why stories and illustrations make learning so much more effective. When a story can be used to illustrate or demonstrate a valuable lesson, the story makes it much more understandable, relatable, and memorable. With that in mind, I want to take some time to do just that – share examples of circumstances and stories experienced in everyday life which illustrate leadership lessons that we can learn and apply. This is one of those examples, and it reminds us that people matter to God.
My work schedule is often not structured or consistent from day-to-day, so I will look for pockets of time to get certain tasks done throughout the day. One particular day, I got up early to get work done in the quietness of the morning. Everyone was still asleep, and I was expecting to knock out a few things during that time. I had just gotten set up to start the first task when one of my grandchildren got up earlier than expected and decided I needed all of her attention. Initially (and unfortunately), this was causing me to get frustrated because of the work that was not getting done. However, when I complained to my wife, she reminded me that this opportunity to be intentionally involved in the lives of my grandchildren is only for a season. They will grow older, and these moments will end, so I needed to see it as the blessing from the Lord that it was.
This was a reminder that I needed to hear. I can easily be a structured, analytical, and task-driven person, focused on getting something done, but not giving attention to the people around me. This was the mindset that was driving me in that moment when my grandchild wanted my attention. The result was that I was focusing on the task at the expense of a person.
I once read that Henri Nouwan said later in his life, “My whole life I have been complaining that my work was constantly interrupted until I discovered the interruptions were my work.” This reminded me of something that happened in my first head-of-school job. I was trying to craft and put in place all of my wonderful plans, but I kept getting frustrated because people were interrupting me and keeping me from getting to the work I needed to do. Eventually, God hit me over the head with a significant reminder that people matter to God. He brought to my mind the theme of a message that our pastor had preached at my previous church on the last Sunday that I was there before we moved. Over and over, throughout the message, he kept saying, “People matter to God.” His message flashed back into my mind, and I realized that my job was really about people, and so I needed to see those “interruptions” differently.
That’s the leadership lesson from this little thing in life, from the interruption of my work by one of my grandchildren. Very simply, people matter to God. That does not mean that tasks are unimportant. There are lots of tasks that have to be done in order for everything else to function correctly. But this is not an “either/or” dilemma. Yes, there are tasks that need to be done, but people matter to God and to you, so see those interruptions as important relational opportunities, and relish them. Because people matter to God.
