Page 31 - C:\Users\Owner\Documents\Flip PDF Professional\Ellin Dize proof book\

Lead, Follow, or Move!

April

Recently I heard this phrase: “lead, follow, or get out of the way” - and it gave me an
immediate sense of wonder and amusement at the same time. I thought of local traffic
jams and how the phrase could be a good solution for drivers: “lead, follow, or get out of
the way.” Sometimes I want to say: ‘get out of the way’ when drivers hang on the road
as they ‘oh-so-slowly’ make their right hand turns…with no concern for the traffic jam
they are causing on the road they are exiting. Of course church drifted into my mind too
where some will not lead, will not follow, and some won’t get out of the way of progress
either. It is true: some people hang-out on the road, other people hang in the wings
putting in their two cents, but not leading, or following, only getting IN the way.
Someone once said that if you're part of a team, you've got to do one of the three: lead,
follow, or get out of the way (LForG). This phrase continued to haunt me, since I’m always
looking for simple methods to live life to its fullest: the way Jesus planned for us to do.
By the way, (an insert here) you can read about Jesus ‘the greatest motivator of all time’
in Harry A. Olson’s book, “Power Strategies of Jesus Christ.”
Back to researching the origin of LForG. Voila!…Thomas Paine, a founding father,
is responsible for this quote way back in the 1700’s and Charlie Bell, the CEO of
McDonalds, is using it this way: “The way I look at it, you have three choices in life:
lead, follow or get out of the way.”
Robert D. Ramsey, a best selling author, says that leadership is learnable. Moses
proved this in Exodus 3:10 when God told Moses: “so come, I will send you to Pharaoh
to bring my people, …out of Egypt.” God has a habit of selecting persons who do not
have certain talents or abilities so that the world will know ‘it is indeed God’ whom is
really performing the leadership. When Moses objected, saying he was slow of speech,
God supplied him with Moses’ brother, Aaron, to speak for him. Together they did all
the things that the author, Ramsey, predicts that his modern book will enable you to do:
‘be proactive, push the envelope, focus on the future.’ And I say put your faith in your
Maker and Savior and you can accomplish unbelievable things…and you may receive a
helper such as Aaron too.
George Patton said, “Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and
they will surprise you with their ingenuity.” Christians believe that we receive this
ingenuity as we listen for God’s next word.
So what will you do: lead, follow, or get out of the way (LForG)? Please concentrate
on the acronym (LForG) that I just created for this article and smile…then ‘Lead for God
(L for G)!’