I hope you are surviving and thriving during these days. Let me spend a few minutes talking to you about your purpose as one of the pandemic personnel.

We are all “players” in life. Yet sometimes life summons “players” to be “leaders.” It may happen only once or twice in life. Up to that point, the jagged pieces of life don’t seem to fit any earth-shaking pattern…

But then a worldwide Coronavirus pandemic hits like a tsunami, and life summons you to step forward.

To be blunt: the whole leadership idea is a demented concept. Leaders are not born. Leaders are not made. Leaders are summoned. They are called to step up as circumstances develop. The ones who rise to the occasion are leaders. Everyone is “called” by God for some kind of mission. But sometimes the “called” are “called out.”

I have learned that how I manifest my calling will change throughout the course of my life. But the mission remains the same. When how you do your mission and how you make your way into the world coincide, you are in the path of leading. When John F. Kennedy was asked how he became a war hero, he said simply, “It was easy. They sank my boat.”

Leaders operate by the senses. You would think that “leading has to do with “vision”, and it is true. But I want to suggest that it has much more to do with “hearing.” As the Coronavirus pandemic began, suddenly names and faces you’ve never seen surfaced. You see people step out and up from the international to the local levels. Leaders step up when they “hear” something resonate within themselves or their team. When it comes to leadership, it has much more to do with the ears than it does the eyes. Leadership is acoustical.

James Witt wrote: “Although it seems unreasonable, unfair and impossible, it is the role of the leader to be many things at many times. In crisis, a leader must be visible, poised, courageous, committed, and attentive. At no other time is a leader’s character more on trial; he must lead and do it well. He must understand that people need to see him and hear him face the challenge head on, even if it puts him at risk.” Harvard Business Essentials states, “During periods of crisis, people look for a strong leader. They don’t look to committees or to teams; they look for a confident, visibly engaged leader to pull them through.” Someone who will HEAR them and LISTEN for what the future will hold.

The truth is that crisis doesn’t make a person. It simply reveals that person for what they are. You don’t know someone until adversity sets down in front of them. It shows the cracks, and the cracks are where God leaks through.

POINT- Right now, you may be leading many people or just yourself. But who knows what tomorrow-or a minute from now-will call forth in you?

Are your ears open?

Reference-“Summoned To Lead”-Len Sweet