Living in the Footnotes, Not the Headlines

“While personality, skills and charisma have their place, my preference is to watch a person’s manner and character. Do they listen well? Is there a love for people shining through their eyes? Can they live in the footnotes, or must they be in the headlines?”

— PAUL WINDSOR

The real leader is not about themselves at all. They are about the innate capacity for others and would only promote themselves if others are to be served centrally. Everything about them is about serving the greater cause or goal. There is something about them that has an allure; because they are not about themselves at all, as all the focus is on the broader landscape of life, all of what they are serves simply and with power, because they are not the slightest bit swayed by partiality.

People cannot help but wish to follow such a person, because they hold to a truth that is commanding: there is a universal respect about such a person. Their life is no longer about themselves at all; not in any dominant way.

Living in the footnotes and not the headlines is the call of God on every Christian’s life; to be willing (because we are able—in our surrender before God) to switch our focus away from our selfish priority and onto the broader needs of all.

Truly Dying to Self

We speak so commonly in Christian circles about dying to self, but what does it really mean? It becomes part of our language, our vernacular, but the more we talk the less we act. Talking is the enemy of acting. We must act and let our actions speak. Don’t our actions convey a commanding language?

Truly dying to self doesn’t really happen until we understand how God’s power works in and through us when we choose the broader perspective—the truth as it pertains to every life situation.

Truly dying to self is not really a hard thing at all when we understand this broader perspective: the truth. No one chooses a lie when they are conscious of the truth in all its power, particularly if they can be part of that power, and that’s what God promises us.

There is no better inspiration than sharing in this power that comes from God.

Having experienced this power we are fools to not do all we can to bring about the broader perspective—working for the needs of all to the best of our abilities. None of us are perfect, but we have all been gifted with minds for choice. We have the power to choose, to decide, to go one way or the other. We consciously choose wisdom or folly.

We are not controlled, but we have been given control. We have power. The more we live in the reality that we have access to this power, the more we can choose to live in the footnotes and not the headlines, for the betterment of the broader perspective.

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Leadership is the greatest privilege we are all given; to inspire and encourage. We all lead, but we may not do it well, unless we understand that the greatest honour within the privilege is to lead for the broader good of all. We not only inspire others, but ourselves too, when we find ourselves satisfied in the footnotes of life, whilst shunning the headlines.

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.