Boldness

It struck me in my approval interview the other day that where I was challenged was where I wasn't expecting it. One part of my essay I clearly took a side about singleness and the church. Because I was so boldly on one side of the issue I figured that is where we were going to have a lot of discussion. In fact, where the committee seemed most concerned was my section talking about the war in Iraq, where I didn't really take a side because I don't know if God really takes sides in such matters. If there is a side for God, it is on the side of people...whatever that might mean. What the committee seemed to be looking for was for me to take a side, to boldly take a stand on the issue of the war.

Yesterday as I was waiting for them to finish working on my car there was a television on in the waiting area. Most of the people sitting in the waiting area seemed to get drawn into whatever was on, television has a way of doing that you know. It was TPT 2 and eventually they moved into their children's programming. There were no children around that I could see, at least not in the waiting area watching. Yet interestingly nobody changed the channel, they just kept watching. I am pretty sure that if somebody had grabbed the remote control and just changed the channel nobody would have objected.

As I'm sure you can guess by now I think both of these are related. I think we are looking for leaders, somebody to boldly take a stand. We so often fight to make no stand in hopes of not offending anyone and we end up turning people away. This world is looking for leaders, people to boldly take a stand. We want leaders who have an opinion, who will be bold. I think people like that, they want that, I suspect people are even impressed by that. I think then the challenge becomes how will you go about being bold, taking a stand, having an opinion without forcing it on others, without forcing them to have the same opinion as you? That would be truly bold.