Leadership Thought: When Was the Last Time Someone Called You a Donkey?

Dear Friend,

Last Sunday, we celebrated Palm Sunday, a celebration of Christ’s humble entry into Jerusalem riding on a lowly donkey.

Whenever I think of Palm Sunday, I think of the late great saint Corrie ten Boom who was once asked if he ever found it difficult to remain humble.

She simply replied, “When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday on the back of a donkey, and everyone was waving palm branches and throwing garments onto the road, and singing praises, do you think that for one moment it ever entered the head of that donkey that any of that was for him?” She continued, “If I can be the donkey on which Jesus Christ rides in his glory, I give him all the praise and all the honor.” (Mark Schaeufele, A Messiah Who Serves.

The king of kings we follow was also a servant of servants, and he calls his followers to display his same spirit of humility and servanthood

One can possess great authority, but if that authority is not combined with humility, he will make a mess of life and his leadership will be a total failure.

It has been said that “The proud man has a mirror in which he sees himself. The humble man has a window through which he sees others.”

When one feels a sense of self-importance, he should remember the following anonymous poem.

“Sometime, when you’re feeling important!

Sometime, when your ego’s in bloom;

Sometime, when you take it for granted

You are the best qualified in the room;

Sometime, when you feel that you’re going

Would leave an unfillable hole,

Just follow these simple instructions,

And see how humbles your soul.

Take a bucket and fill it with water,

Put your hand in it, up to the wrist;

Pull it out, and the hole that’s remaining,

Is a measure of how you'll be missed.

You may splash all you please when you enter,

You can stir up the water galore,

But stop, and you'll find in a minute

That it looks quite the same as before.

The moral of this quaint example,

Is just do the best you can;

And be proud of yourself, but remember

There's no indispensable man.”

If the King of Kings and Lord of Lords could grab a towel and basin and kneel and wash the dirty feet of His disciples, who are we to do otherwise? 

He has given us an example: “Do as I do unto you.”

Yours in faith and friendship,

Tom

P.S. “Success can feather your nest so comfortably that we can forget how to fly.” Warren Wiersbe