Sage advice for a young leader – Part 1

It’s hard to find a leader of any sort that prefers the company of those they lead.

Once someone is saddled with a title and some authority you’ll often see them soon begin to create some separation between themselves and those they lead, gravitating instead toward other leaders.

Not so for the world’s poorest president.

BBC News, Uraguay, reports that in at least one corner of the world, there’s a politician who chooses to live like the masses:

It’s a common grumble that politicians’ lifestyles are far removed from those of their electorate. Not so in Uruguay. Meet the president – who lives on a ramshackle farm and gives away most of his pay.

Laundry is strung outside the house. The water comes from a well in a yard, overgrown with weeds. Only two police officers and Manuela, a three-legged dog, keep watch outside.

This is the residence of the president of Uruguay, Jose Mujica, whose lifestyle clearly differs sharply from that of most other world leaders.

President Mujica has shunned the luxurious house that the Uruguayan state provides for its leaders and opted to stay at his wife’s farmhouse, off a dirt road outside the capital, Montevideo.

The president and his wife work the land themselves, growing flowers.

This austere lifestyle – and the fact that Mujica donates about 90 percent of his monthly salary, equivalent to $12,000, to charity – has led him to be labelled the poorest president in the world.

“I’ve lived like this most of my life,” he says, sitting on an old chair in his garden, using a cushion favored by Manuela the dog.

“I can live well with what I have.”

His charitable donations – which benefit poor people and small entrepreneurs – mean his salary is roughly in line with the average Uruguayan income of $775 a month.

“I’m called ‘the poorest president,’ but I don’t feel poor. Poor people are those who only work to try to keep an expensive lifestyle, and always want more and more,” he says.

“This is a matter of freedom. If you don’t have many possessions then you don’t need to work all your life like a slave to sustain them, and therefore you have more time for yourself,” he says.

“I may appear to be an eccentric old man … but this is a free choice.”

Mujica doesn’t lead the people of his country from a position of authority or by tossing about a title, he leads with his life.

As we read this story about Mujica, some of us likely had thoughts flitter across our minds of how silly it is for this man not to take the nice house and salary allotted to him as president. It’s easy to favor the perks that come with position. But Mujica’s choice to lead with his life is an example that could come to us from scripture.

In fact, it does!

In a letter from Paul to Timothy, who was a younger man Paul thought of as his son “in the faith,” the older, wiser apostle under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit penned some sage advice to this young leader regarding his leadership. He first exhorts Timothy not to let anyone think less of him because of his age, then he shares some wisdom about how to be an effective spiritual leader …

“… Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity.” – 1 Timothy 4:12b.

If you look closely, Paul is, in essence, saying to Timothy, “Lead with your life!”

He doesn’t mention position or title or authority or commission. To be a good and effective spiritual leader, Paul instructs Timothy to …

… be an example in what he says …

… be an example in the way he lives …

… be an example with his love …

… be an example in his faith …

… and to be an example in his purity.

The message is clear: To be an effective spiritual leader, you must lead with your life!

Is that how you’re leading?

Are you an example in what you say?

Are you an example in how you live?

Are you an example with how you love?

Is your faith an example to others?

Is your personal purity an example for others?

That’s how you lead.

At least, that’s how Paul and Timothy did it.

Scotty