People in general and leaders in particular are proficient in making choices. Our culture is organized around constant choice-making. Every fast-food restaurant conveniently packages their meals and numbers them for easy choosing. Each road is filled with signs giving directions with arrows to each possible destination. All the web pages you view are filled with blue underlined words that whisk you to various online destinations.
Choices are literally everywhere, all the time. Psychology Today estimates that you make a staggering number of choices each day. “The average person makes 35,000 choices per day. Assuming that most people spend around seven hours per day sleeping and thus blissfully choice-free, that makes roughly 2,000 decisions per hour, or one decision every two seconds.”[1] Because you have so many choices, the majority of them you make are based on preference or need—that is, what you like, or what you want. We treat most choices as our preferred option among several or many.
A course versus a choice. In life and leadership, there are more profound choices that are based on importance. These can be more weighty choices that affect our lives or organizations more deeply. The choice is not based on what we like, but on deeper factors—long term results, purpose and meaning, key goals, life ambitions. These choices are really courses. A course is a long-term route you follow to a destination. Once you embark on a course, you can change it, but more likely you will keep to it in order to reach a pre-determined end-point. What does Scripture tell us about choosing a course?
Identify the destination. Where are you headed in life, and after? As a Christ-follower it’s important to note that your destination is a choice you made when you decided to follow Christ. A Christ-follower’s destination is spending eternity with Him in heaven. Our primary activity is to become more like Jesus throughout life and work in preparation for that end-point. There may be preferences along the way but the course is set. Scripture then tells us in 2 Timothy 3:14, “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it…” In other words, don’t stray off course.
But what if that is not your destination? The Bible teaches that all other courses lead to destruction. The destination you choose then is a line in the sand. This is echoed in Scripture as well. Joshua 24:15 says, “But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Here Joshua is saying that if choosing God doesn’t appeal to you, then you have other options, but he is sticking with God. It’s important to note that every other option he mentions was eventually destroyed. So a God-driven destination clearly becomes the most important and first choice you should make.
Provision for the journey. Once you choose a destination, the next step is packing for the trip. What provisions will you need throughout life that will help you stay on the course you have chosen. The Bible gives excellent advice here for what to bring with you. Proverbs 4:5 says, “Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or turn away from them.” Then in Proverbs 18:15 we read, “The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge, for the ears of the wise seek it out.” It is wisdom, understanding and godly knowledge that will help guide you along the course of life. Where will this come from? Again from God Himself. We have His Word, the Bible, to teach us.
The Psalmist has this cry to God in Psalm 86:11, “Teach me Your way, Lord, that I may rely on Your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear Your name.” Notice that the writer describes God’s instructions and wisdom as Your way—or path—and not a list to to-do’s. The ending of this verse too has great meaning—give me an undivided heart. Have you ever felt pulled in more than one direction? Have you been walking through life or work and come to the proverbial “fork in the road”? How do you know which direction keeps you on course? It is the undivided heart—one that seeks God first, and so has a clearer picture of where God is leading. If we want what God wants, then He will lead us in His way.
Look for a waypoint. Along life’s course you will face difficulties and challenges. Any course to a destination will encounter storms or darkness. It’s important to have a waypoint that will help you find your way back to the path you desire to stay on. A waypoint is a reference that helps you to know where you are and where you are going. Voyagers of old would fix their gaze on a certain star that would point them in the direction they wanted to go. A waypoint today is often a landmark like a rock formation, spring or river, mountain, a certain road or a man-made object.
Jesus Himself said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). He describes Himself as the (literal) way. The answer then for our lives and work is to fix our course on Jesus as a reference. When difficulties and challenges come we need only look to Christ to determine if we are still on course. To follow Him on this way means that we are to walk as He walked. We are to follow in His footsteps, living as He lived. A way indicates progression. When we follow Him we will eventually come to where He is now.
[1] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/stretching-theory/201809/how-many-decisions-do-we-make-each-day
There’s nothing wrong with being likeable and agreeable as a leader—but to a point. Likeability is not universal. No matter how focused a leader is on building relationships, exhibiting empathy and listening well, he will not be universally liked.