Sitting on my front bench today reading my daily devotional, I noticed a wasp sitting on the other end of the bench. Immediately, I wanted to kill him because he was different and because I perceived that he wanted to harm me. Now, that’s not the truth, generally, wasps won’t harm you unless you threaten them. You can know that if you take the time to study them a little and if you don’t just react out of habit.
In The Wounded Healer: Ministry in Contemporary Society, Henri J.W. Nouwen states that the leader is the one who speaks to the one. The way to do this is to study the individual as a person and to get to know him. Only in such a way can the leader learn to love the man. When the leader loves the man, he becomes a true leader. Further, Nouwen says that the leader is the one who is prepared to give all for the one, the one to whom he can speak.
Thus, I surmise, leaders do not lead masses. True leaders know, are prepared to give their all for, and then lead individuals. If I may sum it up: If we are to be leaders, we must learn to “love one another” and to be prepared to give our all for “the other.” Or, put another way, to love the “other,” we must study the other so that we can be prepared to give our all for and learn to truly love the other.
Jesus tells us in the Great Commandment that we must indeed, “love one another.” John 15:12. He repeats the Commandment in verse 17. May I submit that taken together, these two statements constitute a message that speaks to our leaders, to our society and me personally.
Pastor Alan Cross allows me to sit in on his Bible studies for his church in California. This week, Pastor told a story from 15-20 years ago when at a former pastorate, he led Sunday afternoon visits into a notorious local housing project here in Montgomery, Alabama. He talked about how, through persistence, he was able to win a hearing from the leader of the local gang and to be allowed to move freely among the members on his visits. Eventually, he was privileged by the Holy Spirit to lead the gang leader to Christ.
I remembered the story well, and hearing it again it evoked mixed feelings in me. Though his story was such a wonderful story, it was his story, not mine. He had invited me many times to go with him on those Sunday afternoon visits but, except on rare occasions, I would not go. I felt ashamed for the reason I would not go with him boiled down to my racial prejudice. You see, I didn’t go because I didn’t love black people enough. I had not studied “the other.” I had not contemplated the individual within “the other.” I only saw a group of people who, to me were, indeed, “the other.” At the end of the story, God got the glory, Pastor Alan received a wonderful experience being with God, and I missed the blessing because I would not go.
Henri Nouwen goes on to discuss the sacrifice that the one who would be a leader must make. Nouwen writes that a true leader is one who is willing to sacrifice himself or herself for a single member of the group. A leader, he says, is the one who having sacrificed, can speak to the individual, and thus, to the group.
Interestingly, Pastor Alan talked about the same sacrifice in his Bible study. The coalescence of Nouwen’s book and Pastor Alan’s teaching slapped me in the face. I had completely missed it. Rather than seeing individuals, I had seen only “the other,” a group which I would not try to understand and for which I was not prepared to sacrifice – not so much as a couple of hours on a sunny Sunday afternoon
Rather, I was seduced by the comfort of Aristotle’s categories. Pastor Alan reminded me of what he had taught me about Aristotle. Aristotle observed society and nature around him and concluded that there were natural “categories” or “pairs,” one the subservient, the other the dominator. To Aristotle, males, Greeks, and owners were the “natural” masters, and women, barbarians, and slaves were the “natural” servants.
How interesting it is that we here in the South accepted Aristotle’s 2,500-year-old philosophy because it suited our purposes. More interestingly, and sadly, I might add, Aristotle’s philosophy lives today – not just in the South, not just in the United States, but in many corners of the world.
I was praying about the “slap in the face” that I had experienced, ashamed, and convicted of what my mother would call, “pure and tee” sin. I found myself realizing my personal sin and the evil that I had tolerated and from which I had benefitted. I specifically asked God for forgiveness for my own sin, the sin that deprived me of a chance to know, learn from, and sacrifice for “the other” and thus, miss an opportunity to be with God.
In a while, forgiven, I asked God for another chance to see Him. As I was praying, something told me to ask to meet with God today. For a moment, I experienced trouble focusing, my mind clouded with all my stuff.” But presently, in my spirit, I could see myself floating into space. Carried as on eagle’s wings, I soared through the clouds and the white, blue, gray, black atmosphere until I reached a point where I could look back at the Earth. I slowed to a stop and gazed at the Earth below me. Transfixed, I heard the voice of God saying, “You don’t have to go into space to meet with me. All you have to do is to focus on Me and My sacrifice for you and then, step through the heavenly portal that I have created there on Earth for you and for those who truly desire to see me.”
In a few minutes, the sound of the FedEx truck rolling up to a stop at my curb awakened me from my reverie. In the normal course of business, the delivery man got out and walked toward me. He was a young black man with a broad nose, rather full lips, and quite a dark complexion. I thought as to how he who could well have been a kid from that housing project that I missed getting to know years ago. He was courteous and I was kind. For a moment, I felt a bond with him, perhaps, a bond that transcended time and space. But then time brought me back in. He walked away.
As he stepped back into the truck, the wasp, once again, captured my attention – except that looking at him in a different light, I could see that he was in reality a butterfly.
As the FedEx truck drove away, God said, “You just saw Me today.” And I knew that I had.
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