Jesus told us to lead with love. Okayyyyy….but what does it mean ‘to lead with love’? How does one go about ‘leading with love’? What does it entail? And most importantly, what is love?

I remember reading a twitter post that said ‘you know you love someone when you want them to be happy even if its not with you’. I think this is a beautiful representation of what love is, it is not selfish and it does not envy. It takes you as you are and helps you along your journey till the very end. Basically it makes you feel light, you want to celebrate the success of people even if that means it isn’t with you but with someone else somewhere else. Even if it hurts you still derive joy and happiness from them being happy and this can ironically lead to you healing from the pain of being away from them but only if you let it.

LOVE IS LIGHT!
                        Like the Sun it brightens all that it touches.

We hear the statement ‘actions speak louder then words’ its true. How you act towards something ultimately reveals how you feel towards it. This is especially true when trying to lead with love as Jesus did for example
love is safe, love is care
it isn’t you dropping meaningless phrases
it isn’t empty grand gestures
it isn’t hitting me then buying me flowers
it isn’t demeaning me then saying you didn’t mean it like that
it is pushing me when i lose motivation
it is just holding me when I’m sad
it is comfortable silence
it is always being there
it is pointing out my bs
it is also knowing when to let go
love is safe, love is care

I read something somewhere that said ‘if you say something over and over it loses its meaning. I love you, I love you, I love you. See, nothing’. Now think of the phrase ‘I love you’, how many times is it thrown around everyday with nothing behind it? A friend of mine once told me (I,m paraphrasing here) ‘I don’t say that phrase a lot because it means a lot, you should only say it if you mean it’. She is right, when you say ‘I love you’ you’re basically saying how you are is how I accept you and I won’t try to change you.

Back to leading with love. First what is leading? A quick search on google brings up many definitions but a few stood out to me:
1. the initiative in an action; an example for others to follow.

2.  to be in charge of.
This brings to mind the statement ‘you need to lead by example’, if the leader does it then his subordinates are more likely to follow what they do. A leader is not coercion, brutality and fear. A leader is Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz; she was kind, she made friends with people and animals, she was genuinely liked. Dorothy led her little unlikely band to the Emerald City not by capitalizing on their insecurities but by gentle words, genuinely caring, encouragement, gentle prodding and genuine belief that good can trample over evil. Dorothy is a good example of a leader, rather unconventional but that’s never been an issue. She shows what it means to be a leader, she doesn’t really appear to be one but she is, she walks among those she leads in charge but also a part of the action.

Kahumuzah