I hate snow. I really truly with all that is within me, hate snow. It's wet and cold and really mucks everything up, particulary an early morning drive.
When I left my house this morning, it was just starting to snow, when I got to the freeway it was snowing harder and by the time I got near my office I and my other commuters were surviving amisdt white out conditions (by the way have you ever noticed on the news that they always say near white out conditions, but not white out conditions. These were white out conditions.)
Also, the tires on my car are bald like an eagle. And my car is very low on oil, it makes this beeping sound like a bomb about to explode everytime I turn a corner. And my windshield is cracked. My car is a death trap. I in fact defy death at every turn.
About half a mile away from my office, things started getting pretty hetic. I was fishtailling back and forth in my lane, putting all of concentration into predicting the next angle my car would turn at so that I could react appropriately with the steering wheel. During this time, I learned two things. 1. It really does make sense to turn the steering wheel into the direction that your car is swerving and 2. Jesus listens to me when I really desperately cry out for help. Never in my life have the words, "Jesus help me please. Please Jesus I need you." slipped past my lips so many times. My heart was genuine too, I really needed his help.
My office is on top of a hill, and as I turned around the bend, reminding myself to ignore that bomb-like beeping my dashboard emitted, my car stopped moving forward. My tires were still turning, but I most certainly was not going anywhere. I front of me there was a large city bus and a couple cars stuck behind it. To my right, several cars were already stuck curbside. I weighed my options, pushed forward a handful more feet and tried to pull my car over to the side of the road. I can admit defeat. Sometimes.
I called my boss to explain my situation, I was halfheartedly hoping that he would excuse me from work and my roommate who has a truck would come pick me up, no such luck. Dean, my boss, is an interesting fellow. He's British and Mormon and well-educated. He's always worked in the world of florescent lights and cubicles, but he's sort of a man's man as well. Most days around the office he finishes his desk work and finds some sort of project involving a hammer and nails with which to end the day.
So I waited in my car, listening to NPR, and wondered if Dean and another one of my co-workers Mark would actually be able to get my car unstuck. While I was waiting, at least a half a dozen other cars got stuck on the hill where I was, and there was still the bus to contend with.
Dean and Mark came around the corner, carrying a blue snow shovel, covered in snow. In the time that my car sat there, an inch of wet, heavy, hate-worthy snow had accumulated on my windshield. For some reason was really proud of Dean and Mark when they cam around that corner, I knew they were on their way to rescue me, and that eventually, the situatuion would be resolved.
In order to get my car out, they need to move the cars in front of me, so they starting at the top of the hill, pushing and shoving cars in the slush and muck. Once they got to work an interesting thing happened, all the other men in their cars that we're stuck in the snow, or just waiting in traffic, got out of their cars and began a community effort to serve their neighbors, and get us either back on the road or at least to a safe place.
These men had the inititive to lead, because they had a vested interest in the circumstance: me. On both a personal and professional level, they were concerned about my well-being, so the stepped to the plate. The other men perhaps didn't have a vested situation in the circumstance, but they did have an example to follow, showing them was they needed to do.
How often does that happen in the church? Everyone sits in their cars, in their individual lives, minding their own business. We might see what's going on with the people around us, but don't have the drive to really get involved in their lives. It takes a leader to get us up and moving.
Leader is sort of an aggrandized term in both the professional and religious worlds, but it's really just an example, some one to follow. Like Paul said, "Follow me, as I follow Christ." A leader doesn't have to do anything but me one step ahead of the of those who are following.