I’ve always been intrigued by a robot vacuum cleaner. Usually it’s a circular device built low to the ground, sort of like an upside-down bowl. The early versions would zigzag around your floor, sucking up dirt. They did their job haphazardly, bouncing off furniture, changing direction, and going at it again. Supposedly you got your entire floor vacuumed over a period of time simply by that hit-and-miss procedure, sort of like a bump-and-go toy.

The bump-‘n’-go vacuum cleaner provides an image of how we can live if we’re not careful. We can go through life bouncing around, backing off when we hit something difficult, and heading off in what we hope will be a better direction. We can just let life happen to us.

What have you been up against lately? God hasn’t designed us to be bump-‘n’-go vacuum cleaners or toys! The Bible gives us this great promise: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

This brings us to a core value that we should live by. It’s the last of ten core values we’ve identified that can make life more of what God intends it to be. The core value we’re discussing today is giving leadership to your life! The fact is that everyone is a leader. Maybe you aren’t a leader of other people, but every person has the God-given responsibility to give leadership to his own life. Jesus Christ is to be many things to us, including being our Savior and Lord. He’s also our best example, and He most certainly was a leader — the very best leader the world has ever seen. Let’s look at one example where He led the way.

JESUS’ LIFE WAS PLANNED
The historian Mark, in his gospel account of Jesus, wrote this intriguing statement about Jesus and His disciples: “They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid. Again, he took the Twelve aside and told them what was going to happen to him.” (Mark 10:32) Jesus was making His way to Jerusalem for what would become known as the triumphal entry, with palm branches waved and hosannas shouted on what we’ve come to celebrate as Palm Sunday.

Jesus knew what was going to happen to Him. He told His disciples, “We are going up to Jerusalem and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.” (Mark 10:33-34)

What happened to Jesus didn’t surprise Him. He wasn’t a victim; He intentionally headed to Jerusalem for the purpose of going to the cross. It was His plan all along. When you look at the life of Christ you have the constant sense that He lived purposefully. He didn’t just let life happen to Him; He carried out a specific plan for His life.

GIVE LEADERSHIP TO YOUR LIFE
Jesus lived a called life, and He calls us to follow Him. He said to His followers then — and He says to us — “Follow me.” We’re meant to be His disciples, which implies living with discipline (“discipline” and “discipleship” come from the same root word). We’re not supposed to be bump-‘n’-go people, bouncing around, reacting instead of responding. We’re supposed to give leadership to our own lives!

This is a fallen world, and life’s a challenge. Almost every facet of our lives will degenerate if it’s left to itself and is unattended. It has been said that if you aim at nothing, you’ll probably hit it. Whether it’s marriage, our relationships with our kids, our thought life, a job, our walk with the Lord, our physical well-being, or anything else, things rarely improve on their own. When was the last time you could say, “I didn’t give it any attention. In fact, I forgot about it — and one day I realized just how much better things had become!”? Life just doesn’t work that way, yet how frequently do we give adequate attention to the areas of our lives that are really important to us?

The author of the book BreakOut Churches said that there’s no such thing as a church on a plateau. A church is either growing or declining (by whatever means you wish to measure that). A plateau is a land formation that’s higher than the surrounding land and is essentially flat on top. However, even a plateau has slight ups and downs, and when it rains on a plateau the water will run one way or another because it isn’t perfectly flat. It seems that the same is true with our individual lives. It’s doubtful that we’re ever truly on a plateau; things are almost always — at least slightly, and perhaps imperceptibly — getting better or worse. As we said, if no significant attention is given to them, things are likely to get worse, not better.

On one occasion Jesus was talking about being right with God and living within His will. He said, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matthew 7:13) Failure requires no intentional effort, but success does. Failure is much easier to achieve than success.

We’re talking about living with the specific intention of giving clear leadership to our lives. However, there’s one more step. We must first take seriously God’s will that we be responsible for our own lives — and then, out of the deepest sense of personal responsibility, we must give leadership to the Lord.

GIVE LEADERSHIP TO JESUS
We said that we’re called. That implies a basis of action outside of ourselves: we base our thoughts and actions on something or someone bigger than ourselves. That someone is God. We’re meant to give leadership to our own lives, but we’re to lead ourselves to the Lord and then yield ultimate leadership to Him.

Remember the text we’re looking at, which is about Jesus’ leading the way to Jerusalem: “They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid.” The disciples didn’t have to follow, but they did. They gave ultimate leadership to Jesus even though they were astonished and it scared them.

It’s not easy to let yourself be led by the Lord in whatever area of life you might think of, but fortunately we have His help. I was thinking about this the other night — at 2:30 a.m., to be specific. I couldn’t get back to sleep, and I was thinking about the big challenges facing our church. I found myself praying a little prayer that’s been prayed through the centuries called “The Jesus Prayer”: “Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.” I repeated it several times, and it was comforting.

Then I thought about the ways the Lord does have mercy upon us and helps us, giving good leadership to our lives. Three key ways stood out.

Jesus gives us the wisdom we need: “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.” (James 1:5-8) Ask for wisdom from the Lord, don’t doubt that He’ll give it to you, and you’ll have it!

Jesus gives us strength. The apostle Paul affirmed about Jesus, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:13) The Lord doesn’t call the qualified; He qualifies the called! He’ll provide the resources for us to handle whatever He puts before us or allows to come our way.

Jesus gives us the ability to love: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. . . . We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. . . . And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. . . . We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:10,13,16,19) It’s not always easy to do the loving thing or to feel loving, but God can help us!

Do you feel overwhelmed, victimized, confused, hurt by someone, alienated from someone, or discouraged? You’re in a perfect position to experience the wisdom, strength, and love of Christ! Take leadership in your situation and give that leadership to Christ!

LEADERS OF OTHERS
When we talk about giving leadership to our lives, we need to briefly address the fact that some of us are called to lead others in church, on the job, or perhaps in some organization we belong to. On one occasion Jesus’ disciples provided an example of how not to be a leader.

Two of Jesus’ disciples, brothers James and John, asked Jesus for the two top positions in His new kingdom someday: “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory,” they asked. Not only did Jesus turn down their request, the rest of the disciples were upset with them for asking.

Jesus used the incident as a teachable moment and told the disciples — and us — what makes a true leader. It applies to all of us who are called to lead others. Jesus said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:42-45)

Leaders shouldn’t accept or hold a position of leadership because they want power, control, or high position. They should want to be leaders because it puts them in the best position to serve the interests and needs of others. Leaders are supposed to be servants. Our job is to help others succeed — and if they succeed, we succeed!

When life is handed to us, it needs to be put together. Sometimes all the pieces don’t seem to be there, and some may even be broken. That’s the kind of world we live in, but we’re not to give in to it; we’re to be proactive! We’re supposed to give leadership in all situations. We’re to make things happen, not just let them happen. When we adopt this core value it can make life more of what God wants it to be!

I began by describing a bump-‘n’-go vacuum cleaner, but there’s a new kind of robot vacuum cleaner now! It’s much smarter: it learns the shape of a room and the location of all the things that it could bump into, and it does the job in an orderly fashion. We need to be like that new state-of-the-art vacuum cleaner! Let’s be open to the Lord’s input so that we navigate our way through life the way He wants us to!