Let’s take a minute to talk about a leadership lesson I’ve learned from COVID, if you’re not too worn down from this just yet.
Here’s the good news: COVID deaths are way down. As viruses do, it will continue to spread, but thankfully we’ve figured out how to mitigate it.
But here’s the issue: There’s still so much uncertainty out there.
If you’re like me, you don’t like uncertainty. As a matter of fact, one of the beauties of America has been predictability. Predictability allows for investment. Predictability allows for behavior. Predictability allows for vision. Without predictability, we’ve kind of been stalled.
Imagine being on a sailboat. The sails are up, but there’s no wind. I know where I want to go, but I don’t have an engine and I need the wind to blow. Whether it’s in the marketplace, in your home life, or in your ministry, we need wind!
Some days I’d get up and I literally could not make a “to do list.” The next day I’d feel a little better. Maybe the news was better. Maybe the stock market went up. I’d see some signs of wind, and I’d be ready to take on the world, which would only be defeated two days later by no wind in the sails.
We live in such an instant society. I don’t want to minimize the effects of the coronavirus, but in the scope of centuries, and decades and years … we’re talking about months. Don’t let months derail who you are and make you a lesser version of you.
I’m used to running fast. This time of no wind is driving me crazy, but I’ve felt the voice of the Holy Spirit saying, “Be ready. Be ready.”
You know, the word used for “Holy Spirit” in both the Old Testament Hebrew and the New Testament Greek doesn’t mean “spirit” at all. Some versions of the Bible translate the words “Ghost” — The Holy Ghost.
So we have this picture of a spiritual being with a sheet over its head and two holes cut out for eyes ready to sneak up and scare people for Jesus. That’s not what the original languages say at all! In Hebrew the word is “ruach,” and in Greek the word is “pnuema.” In both cases the words mean breath or wind.
I believe the Holy Spirit is telling us to be ready because God is about breathe His “ruach,” His breath, His “pnuema” — His wind — into our lives. The wind of God is about to blow into our sails, and you better be ready to run again.
Don’t be derailed. Be ready. Don’t let COVID make you a lesser version of you. Become a better version of you. And BE READY!
