Scripture

“Get up,” he said “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt.. Stay there until I tell you....” (Matthew 2:13)

Thought

When we’re in step with God, we can be led in directions that simply don’t make sense to us. We can be put into positions that don’t quite add up. Study any successful leader and you will find periods of wandering in their journey. Seasons in the wilderness.

You may object and say, “No, I always know exactly where I’m going and why I’m going there.”

That kind of clarity is amazing, but it is inconsistent with some chapters and some experiences of great transformational leaders in history.

Moses wandered for 40 years before becoming the leader of God’s chosen people.

Joseph spent decades in obscurity, including time behind bars as an innocent man before becoming the right-hand man to the Pharaoh.

Even Jesus spent 30 years in anonymity before revealing he was the Messiah. And right before his revelation he spent 40 days in the wilderness being tested. It’s as if the closer he got to his calling, the more confusing and under-fire his life became.

“Stay there until I tell you.”

If we’re going to stay the course on this journey, we must level-up our ability to trust. It takes trust to make sense of some of the difficult parts of the transformational journey. It takes trust to walk in the wilderness. Trust when we don’t have answers for key questions. Why this assignment at this time? Why the lack of support or funding? Why the personnel change? Where is this all leading?

Trust is the skill most transformational leaders need to level-up. With trust in full capacity it becomes much easier to plow the field we’re in. When trust is lacking, most leaders start peaking. - at others success, at other teams, and at other opportunities.

Trust calls out and says - “nothing is wasted.” No season of obscurity, no chapter of anonymity will threaten the plans that God has for your leadership life.

Trust must be the backbone of your days in the wilderness. If not, you will forfeit necessary development. You will waste the opportunity that God sent you to this time and place to develop in your life.

Nothing is ever wasted in the wilderness years.

Leader’s aren’t sent to the wilderness to atrophy.