Lessons Learned
How do you measure success?
After healing the paralyzed man, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up, left everything, and followed him. Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house; and there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others sitting at the table with them. The Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus answered, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance.” - Luke 5:27–32
When we look at Jesus as an example of leadership, what do we see?
Today's Gospel gives us a glimpse at Jesus's leadership style and approach to success in his ministry. Instead of calling on the righteous to help him reach the sinner, he calls the sinner to work with him.
That makes sense, doesn't it? He wants to reach sinners, so he hires a sinner who has connections to others.
One of the reasons we fail is we choose the wrong approach. If we want to help the hungry, then we should hire the hungry. If we want to help the imprisoned, we should hire someone who has been in prison.
If we want to reach children, we should hire children, or at least recruit them to help.
Everywhere I go, I find pockets of hungry people in need of food. I find them because I talk about feeding the hungry. That's my thing. I find people who have jobs but are homeless, people who come to work hungry and have no money for lunch. And many work where there is no access to a soup kitchen or pantry.
So, it makes sense for me to find a way to bring food to them, right?
Companies and organizations don't know how to address these issues because it is not their focus or mission. They need to recruit the right people, people who do this work of feeding the hungry.
The lesson we learn from Jesus is to use the right tool for the job, find the right person for the task.
He goes where the need is and calls upon the ones in need to help one another.
We can do the same with the skills and talents God has given us. We just need to be willing to go.
More to come...