American biographer and historian Doris Kearns Goodwin*, through her extensive study of leadership, found that there were common traits and behavioral patterns that existed among distinctively different leaders, among those traits being "humility, empathy, resilience, courage; the ability to replenish energy, listen to diverse opinions, control negative impulses, connect with all manner of people, communicate through stories, and keep one's word." As I read through these traits, there is a word that resonates within me--and it's not found within this list but within each trait: LOVE. In Matthew 22:37-40, NASB, when Jesus is asked which commandment of the Law is the greatest, Jesus replied with two: "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Upon these two commandments hang the whole La
In last week's post , I mentioned the booklet Holy Boldness that I received from Great Aunt Blanche. This week, I'm focusing on the short (1-1/3 pages) introduction. Despite its brevity, the reader learns quickly that there is no time to be wimpy in your boldness and that you will be doing BIG things with this boldness. Image by Steve Harvey at Unsplash Let me state that this text was created by the American Bible Society and published in 1995. It was prepared for The Baltimore-Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church. Because there is no expiration date on God or the Word, I'm diving into these words 25 years later still expecting to learn a thing or three. Now, let's jump in... Essentially, the introduction, written by the late Bishop Felton Edwin May, states that there are two prerequisites to Holy Boldness. "First, we need to know what we believe." We need to know and believe that Christ was both crucified and resurrected, and because we know