Wednesday Devotional: Leading From the Bottom of the Ship

Relentless When You Run

“But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. So the captain came and said to him, ‘What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.’” Jonah 1:5-6

There is something deeply uncomfortable about the image of Jonah asleep in the hull of a ship that is breaking apart. Everyone above him is working, praying, and fighting for survival. He is below deck, checked out, unreachable. The man with the most relevant relationship to the situation is the most disengaged person on the vessel.

Leaders disengage in seasons of personal conflict more often than they recognize. Not dramatically. Not visibly. The calendar stays full, the meetings still happen, the reports still get filed. The disengagement is internal. A leader who is running from something they know God is asking them to face will often show up physically and disappear emotionally. The lights are on. Nobody me…