I will always be surrounded by only a few fellow builders on my best days. Some days I am certain to be ALONE. This is just the way it is for any that choose to lead anything the right way.
I will never be wildly popular with the mainstream anything. The masses are attracted to what is easy and getting easier. The road is wide on Easy Street and getting wider all the time. Easy Street is a lie.
Lies are easy for awhile. Then suddenly they get ugly, messy, and hard.
Leaders, do not be drawn in to becoming popular and walking your team down Easy Street. Your responsibility is to be right, just, and lead the way forward. Your responsibility is to embrace the hard climb ahead and show others that it’s worth going it alone, if you must. Remember, your children won’t always like you when you do what is right and just. And, neither will your team.
Do it anyway.
I don’t claim to know what Coach Tressel did or didn’t do. Nor do I know his motives. I do, however, know that I’ve made plenty of mistakes “shielding my team” when the right thing to do was to let them feel the pain of their decisions. And, the funny thing is, I thought my motives were right.
God, help me not care so much about how many clients I have, how many builders I am with, how many people follow this work, and how popular our work becomes. God, help me see the way forward and simply do what is right, just, and fair.
God, help me…
BUILT TO LEAD 
one of my new favorite tests among the din and the clatter is to think and ask what does my creator and leader want. the only true one we work for. what was his example. it is usually very quick and clear the answer.
This is the second time this morning this message has “Hit” me. The first – Hebrews 11:39-40. And then for better context, Hebrews 11:1-38…
No such thing as easy street for these folks, yet thousands years later….
“weakness turned to strength” jumps out at me…
Check it out.