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Guard Your Heart

Protect the wellspring of our leadership
By Phyllis H. Hendry

"I Have been fired,” my friend said.

"Why?” I asked.

Sam* did not know. The day before, Sam had been offered the "opportunity” to resign with some severance or to be fired with nothing. He was given a little over an hour to decide. He spoke to his wife and since they were convinced that he had done nothing wrong, they decided he would not resign as it would seem an admission of guilt. Immediately he was fired with no severance, no insurance, nothing.

Several of Sam’s colleagues called to be sure I had heard this news; they were devastated as well. Sam had served on the leadership team of his organization for nearly 10 years. He began with the former president and had continued to carry the vision through two years of an interim president. A new president had only been in his position for 10 days. Apparently, at the firing, the interim chairman of the board did all the talking.

I could not imagine how this great organization, with whom we had been working for several years, would have allowed this situation to happen, so I met with the new president to find a way to help. I told him that as a strategic partner, I was saddened by the news of Sam’s firing. He said that when I understood the facts I would know he had done the right thing, but those facts never came.

What he did relate seemed to be based on a misunderstanding. I told him that in this situation it seemed that a conversation was needed, not a firing. I asked him if he had talked to the leadership team, the interim president, or the investors to gain perspective. He had not. He had only met with the interim chairman of the board.

What later unfolded was the story of a fractured board that had a different vision than the president who hired Sam, and where a group on the board sought power. It seems that a step toward that goal was getting rid of Sam. I am sad to say this example comes from a Christian organization being led by Christian leaders.

As I was praying for Sam, his family and the organization, I remembered Jeremiah 17:9, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” I remembered that my own heart can be deceived as well. With all of my heart, I want to lead like Jesus, and yet I realize that my heart is the greatest barrier for Jesus-like leadership.

I am overwhelmingly convinced that Jesus-like leadership begins on the inside — in the heart. I am convinced also that our hearts are our toughest leadership challenge. Scripture tells us: "Above all else, guard our hearts for it is the well-spring of life.” (Prov. 4:23). Above all else raises the bar to extremely critical. Guarding it — placing a protective hedge around it — is a full-time effort, an effort critical to how we lead and live. The heart holds pride, fear, unforgiveness, anger, and wounds or releases it all. The heart is the window into how I will react when things don’t go my way. When I look into my heart, I may realize the unrealistic pace at which I work is not motivated by God. When I look into my heart, I realize why I respond so negatively to negative feedback. It is the heart that protects a position rather than finding the best way to serve. It is the old wounds left dormant in the heart that motivate me to speak in hurtful ways.

I thought perhaps our mind should be guarded "above all else” since we know Scripture tells us "be transformed by the renewing of your mind (Romans 12:2) But I remembered Romans 10:10 — "For it is in the heart that you believe and are justified.” Our heart is not only where motivation and intention are stored but where our belief in Jesus is stored. That’s it; that is why our hearts are to be guarded above all else!

My transformation starts in my heart with belief. Jesus told the disciples in John 6:29, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” It is the heart where belief in Jesus begins to weave its thread through our lives. Belief changes our perspective about who we are (mission and purpose) and whose we are (our audience of one). The lens through which we see life is forever different if we cultivate our heart of belief and surrender to the one in whom we believe. The choice to believe is our first step to having a heart that causes us to be a Jesus-like leader.

We have other choices too. Jesus showed us how to protect our hearts. We can choose to guard our hearts by spending time with the Father as he did (Mark 1:35). He allowed times of solitude to fill him up with who he was and whose he was. Jesus didn’t regard solitude as his "private” time to refuel and go back into his schedule; it was time for the Father to work in and through his humanness. Solitude is the place where our hearts are formed to be more like Jesus; it is our choice to make space for God to act in ways that can only be heard in the silence. As busy people, our eyes often glaze over when someone speaks of solitude. Yet as I think of those few people in my life who never react, but respond even to criticism in loving ways, who are prepared for challenges, who are filled with wisdom, peace, and the joy of God, and who persevere beyond imagination, I remember they are all people who spend much time alone in solitude with our Heavenly Father. There is no substitute for the transforming power of being with the Father.

We can choose for our hearts to be a storage place of God’s word. We are instructed to hide God’s word in our hearts (Ps. 119:11) so that our motivation and intention are filtered through the lens of Scripture. As a Jewish boy, Jesus stored Scripture in his heart. We are responsible to know what Scripture teaches us so that we can respond to every situation out of hearts filled with the word of God.

We can choose to seek the Father with all of our hearts (Jer. 29:13). This choice is the surrender of all my heart desires, the results I want to achieve, the kingdoms I want to build; I come to a place that seeking God is everything my heart desires. God is still looking "throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him” (2 Chron. 16:9). When we seek the Father with all of our hearts, he strengthens us! When we seek the Father, we surrender like Jesus did in Gethsemane and release our will to the Father’s will. My heart is totally his.

When we choose to believe, spend time with the Father, store up Scripture in our hearts and seek God with all of our hearts through to surrender, we will find our hearts changed and we will be transformed leaders. That is the work of the heart. Jesus did it perfectly and His model is the perfect one to follow.

*Sam’s story is true; I have changed his name in this article.