“What’s love got to do with it?!”
Tina Turner
Ah yes, the title line from one of my favourite Tina Turner songs. The season is festive, and this installment of the Advent season is all about love. It is pretty fitting to talk about love as it seems to fill the whole Christmas celebration!
Love is a big word. We use it often, we use it emotionally, in almost every setting, and many times, if you are like me, without much differentiation from one application to the other.
Love is a difficult word for the working world. We tend to keep ourselves a little distant for safety reasons. Not necessarily due to physical harm, but because we do not want our personal lives to be harmed by a job we may or may not have a year from now. We also have a ‘work persona’ which is not part of our home life. We all do it. We create boundaries to keep that which is most important and most sacred to us to be safe. Love at work comes across as more of a human resource nightmare than a blessing to anyone.
But we all crave our interpretation of love, and the mirroring of this love in those around us. I believe this is a God-given thing, as part of being made in His image. Therefore, the separating of our worlds can sometimes cause us to lose part of our humanity. Ironically the safety we seek in the world, causes us harm as we withhold love, and reject the mirroring.
You won’t hear this in any business workshop. Sorry. And yes, I know it is a difficult topic to digest in a world that many would prefer to exist amorally.
This is where an old quote I hold to comes to mind, via Cornel West:
“You can’t lead the people, if you don’t love the people.
You can’t save the people, if you don’t serve the people.”
Because when we lead out in our lives, regardless of setting, we will express and mirror a love for people in some way. The choice we have to make every day is how we will love the people in our path without losing the sense of self we have been given. If people are simply cogs in the machine to you, they will act as such. If your vision and mission are rooted in self-service, no one will embrace the direction you are on. If there is one thing, I challenge you with going forward beyond this Christmas season, it is this: Choose to love.
Why? Because people will respond. Not all will respond the way we want them to, and some may be just as unlovable as they were before, but many will change because of it. To lead freely means to be confident in who we are and impact the space around us through the character we desire to be present. Rarely is that an easy task.
So I wish much love and blessing on you, your household, and the spaces you will occupy, throughout this season!
Lead Freely 