Leadership Essentials
Realistic Hope
Many leaders have either resorted to a “gloom and doom” outlook or are simply pretending that nothing has changed. Reluctance to adapt is not unexpected in times of change; remember what Henry Ford said? “If I asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse”.
However, we need a new posture to embrace an uncertain future: we need a ‘realistic hope’. Megan Hyatt Miller reminds us, “Leaders require an accurate picture of the facts, but they also need to have confidence they can overcome even the worst news. That’s realistic. And hopeful.”
Finding a ‘realistic hope’ in our lives doesn’t mean that we stick our head in the sand and ignore the realities and challenges around us or that we give up on the world; rather, it means that we look in the face of our challenging circumstances with a realistic hope that comes from God.
In the movie Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the rebellion leaders were facing overwhelming odds against them, and the main character, Jyn Erso, reminded them, “We have hope. Rebellions are built on hope.”
Similar to this, Christianity was built on hope. In the midst of war, persecution, or pandemic, hope is what has sustained the church throughout the ages. Romans 15:13 in The Message says, “May the God of green hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope!”
Leaders of the future must have ‘realistic hope’.
