The First King Size Bed

Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken

By now I’m sure you’ve seen it since it’s been on the web.  A friend of mine sent it to me the other day.  The subject line read, “The First King Size Bed.” Curious, I opened I and saw an infant size manger full of hay, just the right message for the season. 

I loved it!  What a perfect picture of leadership, unbroken leadership our kind of leadership, the kind of leaders we long to be.

Think about the message of the manger to leaders.  Consider these thoughts and add some of your own to share with others.

Radical submission:  Jesus is the Lord of heaven and earth, Ruler of all, King of kings, yet He chose to submit Himself to His Father so He could be the Author and Finisher of our faith.  That’s unbroken leadership!

Complete obedience:  Jesus did nothing on His own.  He did only what He saw His Father doing, what His Father wanted Him to do.  This is why He was in the manger.  That’s unbroken leadership!

Desperate dependence:  No one is more dependent than a baby—a baby can do nothing for itself except cry desperately for help.  As Jesus was dependent on Mary and Joseph at His birth, so He continued to be dependent on His Father throughout His life.  That’s unbroken leadership!

Total trust:  Dependence demands trust, so Jesus lived and led by faith in His Father and the Holy Spirit who led Him into temptation and stood by Him throughout His life.  That made Him a follower of His Father.  It was His following of the Father that made Him a leader.  That’s unbroken leadership!

Self-humility:  Jesus chose to empty Himself of all His rights, to limit Himself by becoming one of us in that manger—in fact He became all of us in that manger, the Second Adam come to meet our deepest need for love, for grace, for forgiveness, for life.  That’s unbroken leadership!

You see Jesus never left that manger, not even when He went to the cross.  And He did all of this as a real leader, out of love for His Father and His followers.  That’s unbroken leadership.  Why do you lead?

If you really want to know what leadership is, just think about two realities:  the manger and the cross.  And then you will have it.  Unbroken leadership.