Leadership: Find Your Passion

Isaiah 6:5 & 8. "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty." Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"

Bill Hybels uses the term “holy discontent” in describing the search for your passion. What keeps you up at night? What is just plain wrong? What breaks your heart? What injustice can’t you stand to see any longer? Think hard about this.

Effective leaders have found something that they are passionate about. Passion is crucial for a leader because leaders get attacked and face tremendous opposition at times. Moses dealt with people who felt they would be better off as slaves than living as free people under Moses’ leadership (ouch). Nehemiah faced opposition from his enemies as well as his own people as he led the effort to rebuild the wall.

God opened Isaiah’s eyes to see the sin around him. Isaiah saw the stark contrast between a holy God and a sinful people – “people of unclean lips”. It affected him so much that he cried, “I am ruined!” That produced a passion in him to be used by God to bring a very unpopular message to Israel – basically, repent and clean up your act. Isaiah knew that his career was not going to be marked with a lot of people’s choice awards and big bonuses. But he had a passion and that’s what drove him.

What ruins you?