Leadership is Lonely

Exodus 17:4: "Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”   

The price of leadership is often loneliness. 
     In leadership, a dark shadowy valley often follows a mountaintop experience.
 

     We see this pattern with God’s leaders. Moses soared from the heights of leading his people out of Egyptian bondage and landed in the depths of near depression and death threats.
 

     The great Moses led people who didn’t trust him. They grumbled. They complained. They second-guessed. They disobeyed. Each time, Moses turned in frustration to God. At one point, Moses cried out, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me” (Exodus 17:4).
  
     Moses illustrates a simple truth of leadership: Loneliness frequently follows situations that become “us” against “them,” or the leader standing alone against groups of people who have formed pockets of resistance, gossip and more. 
     Throughout the life of his leadership, Moses endured the Israelites’ complaints and rebellion (see Exodus 15–17; Numbers 14; 16). In the face of ensuing isolation and loneliness that Moses must have experienced, he continued serving faithfully by appointing priests and judges, creating a place of worship, delivering God’s law, writing the first five books of the Bible and interceding on behalf of the people.
  
     We learn from Moses’ life that the price of leadership is often loneliness. During the difficult times of leading the people through the wilderness, Moses faced opposition from those who should have been his closest allies.
  
     Leadership is difficult and lonely work. What leaders need to experience your support?
  
     What can you do to help leaders at work or church implement tough changes they are trying to make?



* Source of base image: http://www.edinboro.edu/dotAsset/123074.jpg