What God Makes of Our Mess

I’m doing some research about great leaders for my next book.  One of the resources that I read is a little book entitled Greatness by Steven F. Hayward.  It’s about the leadership lives of Winston Churchill and Ronald Reagan.  It’s a fascinating read on the parallels of the leadership styles of these two men.

Whether you believe these two men were great leaders or not, consider this quote from the book:

“Alexander Hamilton wrote that the love of fame is the ruling passion of the noblest minds, and we can see in Churchill that the thirst for personal honor was the spur to perform great and noble deeds.”

“the love of fame is the ruling passion of the noblest minds”

“the thirst for personal honor was the spur to perform great and noble deeds”

I get these statements and they mess with me in a big way.

Seeking recognition, honor, notoriety feel as natural as breathing and yet as destructive as poison.

The assumption here is that people who are wired for great leadership potential are also cursed with a love of fame and a desire for personal honor.  Why else would one work so hard to accomplish so much?

It seems that God takes these selfish motivations to give us the gumption and the courage to push through criticism and fear to leap out on ledges where few others dare.

How do we reconcile that mess?