"Sitting in a board meeting (at Oak Haven) brings some things to the fore. Successful institutions have strong business principles. EVI has a spiritual President. No one wants to see him leave, but the institution is failing financially. Donors will not forever support incompetence (in the financial field). To bring in a separate business manager under the present president will constitute a huge transfer of power. I dare say, I have enough clamoring for my poor talents around the world and especially in Africa to recommend I be replaced."
At the time, I was thinking that if I was shorn of so much power, I wouldn't be needed at EVI anymore. Interestingly, I now have a Business Manager, Leasa Hodges. And indeed, there has been a huge transfer of power. The end result, however, is not that I am less needed, but that I have more freedom. Leasa's coming to EVI is one of my greatest personal blessings. I view her coming as the answer to a prayer I've been praying for several years now. I've long pled with God to glorify Himself at EVI. Lately, I've come to realize that I wasn't asking G tood glorify me at EVI. I don't have to be in the picture at all. That God has chosen to send Leasa I see as the beginning of new potentials for Eden Valley.
Now, the freedom I am talking about encompasses far more than mentioned above. With age comes understanding, if a man is open to it. I accept that God has given me a special talent. I praise Him for it continually. I realize, however, that I am not the only person with that gift. What if others have the same gift and much more of it? Should that bother me? I don't know if it should, but I can say that it doesn't, and that is where the freedom comes in. I am perfectly happy being who I am. I envy no one for the gift God has given them. Likewise, I am thrilled that Leasa has a talent I don't have. I am also extremely proud of my wife's successes as a leader. I have awakened to find that other people's successes are my joy. I don't know if I ever had a different feeling about that, but I can tell you that there is wonderful sense of freedom when the impulse to make others happy springs constantly from within.
I am perfectly free to be who God made me to be. Are you? From the Preacher to his tribe.
Dad, I'm loving your blog! So many posts lately.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you have relief in so many of your duties at Eden Valley. Now you can focus on the Spiritual aspect of leading, perhaps even around the world!