4 Lessons I’ve Learned Through Sickness.
Last week on social media author Carey Nieuwhof asked a simple question: “What’s your biggest leadership challenge right now?”
Lying in my hospital bed I laughed and said to myself, “Funny you should ask.” At that very moment, our church team was planning a large 4th of July outdoor picnic and service while I was out of commission.
My greatest leadership challenge…SICKNESS.
I have spent many Sundays over the past four years in bed. I have spent those Sundays watching someone else preach to my church while I was forced to watch on live stream. I have been absent in good times and bad. I’ve been gone when I was needed. I have missed countless ball games and field trips. I’ve had to lean heavily upon my staff to step up and do things that were not in their job descriptions. My kids had to grow up too fast. I’ve had to say many times, “I’m sorry, I will not be able to do that.”
When you are too sick to be there for your people it is hard. When there is a job you love waiting for you that you can’t make it to, it stinks! When you desire to be with your family, but can’t even get out of bed it is devastating. When you are always on the go and suddenly everything stops…SICKNESS
I’ve learned a lot while on my back and I want to share some of those lessons I’ve learned by leading in sickness.
1. Always have a backup plan.
You never know when you might go down. When in a position of leadership, it is your responsibility to make sure your duties are covered in the possibility of your absence. You don’t need people wondering what is going to happen if their leader is gone. Have a plan in place so if, and when, it does happen everything will continue to run without you. It might not run as well, but it must keep moving forward. A sign of a great leader is not that everything collapses when he is gone. A sign of a great leader is that everything continues in his absence.
2. Don’t make any rash decisions.
I remember lying on the couch watching my assistant preach on live stream thinking, “I just need to step down. I’m sick. He’s young and full of energy. Our people don’t need me, they would be better off with him.” Now that might be true, but that was not God’s plan. When we are sick, we are not in a place to make difficult decisions. I’ve seen crazy decisions made prematurely in sickness.
For instance, after my heart attack, I bought a Ford and got a cat…
2b. Don’t hold on if it’s time to let go.
Yes, this totally contradicts the previous point, but it really is a sub-point. There will come a time in all of our lives when we will need to hang it up. I have seen leaders hold on way too long, and I am honestly seeing leaders currently holding on when they should be letting go. Even if it is not an illness but just the effects of aging (which I’m sure is not happening to you) it could be time to retire. Sit down with an honest friend outside of your circle and ask their opinion. Ask me! I’ll be glad to tell ya, or I will just send you a single song from the movie Frozen, “Let it Go!”
3. Sickness is not weakness.
My oldest son and I were walking together not too long ago and he said, “Dad, I don’t think I want to be a pastor or missionary.” I said, “That’s fine buddy, but why?” He said, “It seems like everyone pastor I know who did something good always had something bad happen to them.” (He had just finished reading John Bunyan’s biography).
Sickness, suffering, and Satanic attacks are going to come. God never wastes these times in our lives. They are not signs of weakness. They are opportunities for us to glorify God and God to be glorified through us. No prison, no prison epistles from Paul. No prison, no Pilgrim’s Progress by Bunyan.
4. You are not God.
Your ministry, business, organization, or firm is nothing without God. We fear that everything will fall apart without us. We dread the thoughts of someone else calling our shots. It didn’t take long for me to learn that Faith is not my church, it’s God’s church. I love my pulpit, but it’s not my pulpit! I love my people, but wait, those are not my people. It’s God’s church, stage, and flock. I’m just there as his instrument to do his work at this time and in this place. If I’m on my back, His work will go on. If I can’t be there, He will see that it will go on. If I’m not able to be there to take care of my family, He has them too.
I’ve heard many say, I need to get someone in here that I can train to take over this place. Do you really think you can do a better job at that than God? How about, “God, I know you are preparing someone right now to take over this ministry, please give us wisdom to find him and him a heart to desire us.”
I would not wish these last 14 days of Crohn’s issues on my worst enemy. Today is day six in this hospital bed with at least two more to go. I am human, living in a sin-cursed body, that is prone to sickness (in my case inflammation). What if you wake up tomorrow morning so sick to your stomach you cannot even walk, or end up on the bathroom floor dying of a heart attack, what then? Make sure you and everyone around you are ready if you go down with … SICKNESS.
Treg Spicer is pastor of Faith Baptist Church – Morgantown, WV. Follow his blog here. We republish his articles by permission.
Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash