Lead Kindly Light

One may not hold an official leadership position in a company or institution, but all of us have a sincere responsibility to lead people to goodness, to better knowledge, to a better world, and to God. The gospels begin with a star leading the magi to the manger. Later in the gospel we have Philip who, after meeting Jesus, finds Nathanael and leads him to Jesus. We have Philip and Andrew who, after having met Jesus, find a group of Greeks searching for Jesus and lead them to Jesus. Christian leading is to lead people to Jesus.

We can lead people only as far as we ourselves have gone; otherwise it would be the blind leading the blind. Or it would be like the one with a log in his eye pretending to remove the speck from another's eye while ignoring the log in his own eye (Luke 6: 39-42).

Robin Sharma, author of the books The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, Who Will Cry When You Die? etc., in one of his writings said that clear vision/spirituality is that we are able to see within, that we have the courage and grace to see our own heart. We could also add that we have the courage and grace to see our own eyes... and when we see within we get awakened. Leading/leadership needs this awakening. Otherwise it would be the blind leading the blind, and one ignoring the log in one's eye and pretending to remove the speck from another's eye.

Who is not moved by the famous hymn Lead, Kindly Light by John Henry Newman, an Anglican priest and later an English Catholic theologian, philosopher, writer, and poet? The hymn of course points to God as the Kindly Light who leads people through the darkness and uncertainties of life when we don't see the whole path ahead but only the next step. He places kindness in every step of leading others. Give others the light that we have with kindness, correct others, remove the speck from others' eyes with kindness. Christian blindness is to be unkind. One unkind person cannot lead another unkind person; it would result in a disaster.

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