Thursday: Ask the Right Question

More Than Happy Detoured

Philippians 1:18 (ESV) — “What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice,”

The questions a leader asks in a crisis determine the answers available to them. Sit in a setback asking “Why is this happening to me?” and you will mine that question for hours and surface nothing but resentment. The question itself is a dead end. It leads only deeper into the grievance.

Paul models a better instinct. Facing chains, rivals, and a smear campaign, he asks two words: “What then?” It is the question of a leader who has stopped litigating the unfairness and started looking for the way forward. He cuts past everything he cannot control and lands on the one thing that matters: Christ is being preached. That is the question that frees him to rejoice.

Every leader develops a default question they return to under pressure. For some it is “Whose fault is this?” For others it is “How do I protect myself?” These question…