Leaders of Inclusion

Thoughts on the rich young ruler in Mark 10:17-29

The young man asks Jesus what he should do to inherit the kingdom and Jesus lists a bunch of commandments. Then, the young man replies, "I have done all these things."
Then, Jesus looks at him with love and says, "One thing you lack, go and sell everything you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then, come follow me."

The young man walked away sad because he had great wealth. Jesus tells his disciples, "It is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom than a camel to go through the eye of a needle."

I think about this parable a lot because I don't think its so much about money, rather its about self-sufficiency. We depend on ourselves to get through life, but Jesus is asking us to depend only upon Him. He also asks us to look to each other-- he's real big on community. When I think of the rich young man, I think he walked away not because he loved all his stuff, but because it become his security, his adequacy and a reminder of his sufficiency. These are the things we must shed in order to follow Jesus because HE wants to be our security, our adequacy and our sufficiency. Jesus says, "it is hard to enter the Kingdom"-- which means, it is hard! But, I think the reward is greater than we know if we shed all of our self-sufficiency's and watch him bring about the best.

As I look at this scripture in context of leadership, it seems we should be leaders of inclusion and empowerment. Our abilities and skills are not the central aspect of leadership, rather its the relationship and the people we lead.