Hospitable Leaders Embrace Their Destiny
Hospitable Leaders Embrace Their Destiny
God designed us so that when we find our place in this world and do what we were made to do, we experience a deeply satisfying sense of destiny fulfillment.
“Every human being is born with the incredible capacity to impact his world, regardless of how bad things may seem or how helpless a person may feel.”
How do I know this?
Because we were created in the “image and glory of God” (1 Cor. 11:7).
Most of us see different faces when we look in mirrors. Some may see a loser, a victim, or someone alienated from his destiny. People of faith recognize that this God-image was marred and our world terribly wounded when the first human beings chose to live their way instead of God’s way. But when we look into a mirror, as children of God, we should see the image of our Father reflected.
Biblical scholars remind us that “the condition of man as a fallen creature has not entirely effaced the ‘image’; he is still suitable to bear responsibility, he still has God-like qualities, such as love of goodness and beauty, none of which are found in a mere animal.”1
Every human being is created with tremendous potential to do good.
Though we are also born with the potential to do evil (Ps. 51:5), when we believe in Jesus (John 3:7), we enter another dimension of purpose, privilege, and power: “To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become the children of God” (John 1:12). Through this spiritual birth, we are relationally reconnected to God our Father, and His image in us is reconstructed. We are partakers of a new, divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). We are still capable of doing wrong, but our basic instinct now is to do good: “Each of you is now a new person. You are becoming more and more like your Creator” (Col. 3:10 CEV).
For a wedding anniversary, my wife and I were given tickets to the Broadway show The Lion King. Loosely based on Shakespeare’s Hamlet, The Lion King’s tagline reads, “Life’s greatest adventure is finding your place in the Circle of Life.”2 From the time Simba was a young cub, his father taught him that one day he would assume his place as the king of Pride Lands. Simba, however, was not to approach his calling without a deep sense of responsibility. He must play the role for which he was chosen. If not, Simba’s world would be lost.
Similar to Simba’s fictional responsibility, our mandates are to assume our positions in this world—to take our places in the Circle of Life—bearing God’s image and using our God-given authority to bring help and hope into a broken world: “Death ruled like a king because Adam had sinned. But that cannot compare with what Jesus Christ has done. God has been so kind to us, and he has accepted us because of Jesus. And so we will live and rule like kings” (Rom. 5:17 CEV). We are called to “reign in life” (NIV).
Do you know who you are? Are you ruling in life? Or do you live as if you are hopelessly subjected to all the negative forces in your world, left powerless to make a difference?
“Look in the mirror! What do you see? Excuses? Limitations? A damaged past? Lack of talents? What you should see is the image of your heavenly Father (Gen. 1:26–27).”
He is the One who has crowned you with the authority to rule in this life. The One who is calling you to take your necessary place.
You must not run from your destiny.
We must help people succeed in their God-destined place in this world. The hospitable leader should continually challenge those they lead to live the life for which they were created.
Are you living out your destiny? If not, why? Drop a comment and let’s talk about it.
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W. E. Vine, Merrill F. Unger, and William White Jr., Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1996), s.v., “image,” 318.
The Lion King, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110357.
Adapted from Live Ten (Thomas Nelson) and The Hospitable Leader (Baker Publishing Group) by Terry A. Smith. All rights reserved.