{"id":13696,"date":"2021-01-07T20:48:36","date_gmt":"2021-01-08T02:48:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/transformingcenter.org\/?p=13696"},"modified":"2021-01-09T16:17:18","modified_gmt":"2021-01-09T22:17:18","slug":"an-unexpected-epiphany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/transformingcenter.org\/2021\/01\/an-unexpected-epiphany\/","title":{"rendered":"January 6, 2021: An Unexpected Epiphany"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cA leader is a person\u00a0who must take special responsibility for what\u2019s going on inside him- or herself, inside his or her consciousness, lest the act of leadership create more harm than good.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u2013Parker Palmer<\/p>\n

\n

Yesterday morning we published a Beyond Words<\/i> blog post\u00a0highlighting the beginning of Epiphany<\/a>\u2014the season of the church year in which \u00a0we celebrate the showing forth of God\u2019s presence in earthly form.\u00a0 We went on to\u00a0define epiphany in a more\u00a0general sense as\u00a0\u201ca sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something\u2026.an intuitive grasp of reality.\u201d We invited God to make this a season of revelation for us.<\/p>\n

I am quite sure none of us expected the kind of revelation we got.<\/p>\n

Hours later an angry mob, incited by the highest leader in our land, brought violence, destruction and death to our nation’s capital as our elected officials gathered to carry out their constitutional responsibilities. \u00a0On our own soil and brought on by our own fellow\u00a0Americans we witnessed an\u00a0assault on our democracy, a\u00a0violent attack on public servants\u00a0inside\u00a0<\/i>the historic place in which they serve, a human tragedy in which precious lives were lost, and a public shaming of our country on the world stage.<\/p>\n

We also witnessed once again the aching disparity between how white people are treated and how Black people are treated when they gather\u00a0publicly, when they protest, and even when they walk down the street! There were so many reasons to weep that my tears came and went all day.<\/p>\n

A Sudden Manifestation<\/h2>\n

If\u00a0that\u2019s all that had happened yesterday, it would be bad enough. But for those who think deeply about leadership, the events of this day were also an unexpected epiphany\u2014\u201ca\u00a0sudden manifestation” of the essential nature or meaning of leadership. Watching how that day began and how it unfolded, we were faced with the sudden manifestation of undeniable truth.<\/p>\n

Leadership matters.\u00a0Transforming\u00a0leadership matters.\u00a0Untransformed leadership is dangerous and\u00a0destructive\u00a0in the extreme.<\/p>\n

What Lies Beneath<\/h2>\n

In every Transforming Community<\/em><\/a> of leaders we guide and\u00a0facilitate, we reflect on this quote from\u00a0Parker Palmer:\u00a0\u201cA leader is a person\u00a0who must take special responsibility for what\u2019s going on inside him- or herself, inside his or her consciousness, lest the act of leadership create more harm than good.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the four\u00a0hours of solitude that follow this teaching, we reflect on the fact that what lies beneath the surface of our lives as leaders really matters.\u00a0 We allow ourselves to be challenged by the fact that the dark side of leadership\u2014whatever it is in our human and\u00a0psychological\u00a0development that is left undealt with and unresolved\u2014will find its way to the surface of our leadership no matter how hard we try to keep it outside our consciousness. And the most sobering truth is that others will\u00a0probably see it\u00a0before we do\u2014if we\u2019re able to see it at all.<\/p>\n

Followership Matters<\/h2>\n

And let\u2019s be clear about another sudden manifestation we saw yesterday, and\u00a0that is that followership matters, too\u2014 who we choose to follow and why and how. Yesterday\u2019s events reflected not only a tragic failure of leadership but also a tragic failure of followership\u2014blind followership of a leader who is not\u00a0worthy of being followed.\u00a0 Thoughtless followership that relinquishes one’s own inner authority to\u00a0discern what is right and wrong.\u00a0 Self-serving followership motivated by political alignment and career aspirations.<\/p>\n

Thank God we eventually saw leaders who were able to extricate themselves from all that and rise to a higher level\u2014 leadership and duty for the sake of others, leadership in service of what is morally, ethically, and constitutionally right.\u00a0 It was right to certify this election no matter how one feels about it personally, no matter whether it benefits one politically. That is what leaders do.<\/p>\n

The Highest Call of Leadership<\/h2>\n

So the quote\u00a0above\u00a0came back to me over and over through the afternoon and evening hours as I sat glued to the television.\u00a0 It came to me as I wept and prayed that the\u00a0highest leader in our land would take responsibility for\u00a0what was going on inside himself, inside his consciousness, so his\u00a0leadership could stop bringing harm but instead bring good.\u00a0 It came to me\u00a0over and over again as I wrestled with dark thoughts and emotions throughout the night.<\/p>\n

Then this morning, while still\u00a0grieving what we all witnessed yesterday, I\u00a0thought about my own leadership\u00a0and the leadership of all the earnest leaders who come through our\u00a0ministry and I had another\u00a0revelation. It came to me that all of us should be on our faces today begging God to help us see whatever it is in our own\u00a0leadership that is dangerous or destructive. We need to beseech God to help us see what we can not see. We need to pray God will surround us with followers who are awake and alert and\u00a0refuse to follow anything that is sinful or damaging or destructive in us.<\/p>\n

In the face of this unexpected epiphany, let us embrace once again\u00a0the\u00a0truth that the best thing we bring to leadership is our own transforming selves\u2014lest we, too, do more harm than good.\u00a0 Let us see this self-responsibility as our highest call. \u00a0As we will read in\u00a0this week\u2019s lectionary Gospel (Mark 1:4-12), even Jesus was driven into the wilderness by the Spirit to\u00a0wrestle with the most\u00a0subtle and most\u00a0dangerous temptations\u00a0of leadership; and he overcame them by the grace of God and the force of his own character.\u00a0 Surely, this is our calling as well.<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a9Ruth Haley Barton. 2021. Not to be reproduced without permission.<\/p>\n

\n

NOTE FROM OUR DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS: Thank you all for reading and responding to this blog post. We are closing comments for now because we feel the conversation may be taking a turn that is no longer edifying. Here in the Transforming Center we continue to pray for our president and all our governmental leaders at this time.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

As Jesus taught us so we pray:<\/p>\n

OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN,
\n<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME,
\n<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0YOUR KINGDOM COME, YOUR WILL BE DONE,
\n<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 ON EARTH AS IN HEAVEN.
\n<\/em>GIVE US TODAY OUR DAILY BREAD.
\n<\/em>FORGIVE US OUR SINS AS WE FORGIVE THOSE
\n<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 WHO SIN AGAINST US.
\n<\/em>SAVE US FROM THE TIME OF TRIAL,
\n<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0AND DELIVER US FROM EVIL.
\n<\/em>FOR THE KINGDOM, THE POWER, AND THE GLORY
\n<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 ARE YOURS
\n<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 NOW AND FOR EVER.
\n<\/em>AMEN.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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