Craig T. Owens

And do you seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them… (Jeremiah 45:5). 

Baruch faithfully obeyed God and faithfully stood by Jeremiah, but now that the heat was on he was having a bit of a pity party—“Woe is me now! For the Lord has added grief to my sorrows. I fainted in my sighing and find no rest.”

In essence, Baruch was saying, “Things are not working out as I had planned.” God reminds Baruch that His plans are much bigger, and He graciously assures him that He will protect his life where ever He sends Baruch. 

A mark of a godly leader is one who quickly leaves his pity parties.

Instead, my posture should always be: I will obey God and then say, “I am an unworthy servant who is simply doing my Master’s duty” (see Luke 17:7-10). 

This is part 24 in my series on godly leadership. You can check out all of my posts in this series by clicking here.

UPDATE: In my book Shepherd Leadership: The Metrics That Really Matter, I tell a story about a pity party I briefly hosted on my leadership journey in a chapter called “Stick-to-it-iveness.” I think you will really like it!