Do you show my concern with many in the leadership, including me, who are squandering way too much time and energy on ego-cloaked promotion and parading at this conference or that forum.  Just today I heard that misguided ambition too often morphs into “liking the sound of our name more than the name of Jesus” (Scott Sauls).

Just today, I saw this story fresh in the news that succinctly provides the two choices (please watch but don’t get bogged down in the immediate, political nuances):

Option one is we can parade like peacocks or…

Option two is TRAIN and FIGHT.

Which category would the leadership zip code you impact be defined by today?  It has to be one or the other, and the choice possesses epic implications for or against the cause of Christ.

According to 2 Timothy 2, our job is not to strut around but to soldier up:

Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

(I see no mention of a parade in the immediate context of this chapter.)

By the way, there is a parade coming but it occurs after the real, focused disciplines of training and fighting!  Without them there is no spiritual poise for eternity!

No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully.

Lose the spreading of proverbial “feathers.”  Find someone, no matter how ordinary, to disciple and mentor.  Find a place on the battlefront for souls, no matter how obscure, and stand there for the glory of Jesus.  Let those commitments infused with the grace of God be what does the walking and talking in your life’s ultimate, non-propped-up legacy.