Over a lifetime, I’ve found that many things just don’t seem to go as expected, and one of the most challenging situations is when you “the leader” are going full throttle and a personal adversity enters your life.  You no doubt will ask, “why” and then hopefully you’ll ask the really important question, “What is the greater good that will come from this situation.”

If you’ve read my book, GROWING AND BUILDING, you know that when I was about to become fully engaged in a critical, major project, I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.  Don’t get me wrong, many people encounter more difficult situations, but it did give me and my wife great pause and ask the question, “What is the Lord’s greater good for us or someone else in this situation?”  And I am certain, there was a “greater good.”  The second question was, “With me somewhat out of the picture, how would the organization carry on without my full ability to exercise leadership?”

To answer the second question first, if you have been at all successful in exercising leadership, those people in your organization who “really do the work,” will rise to the occasion.  In fact, what I found was that when there was less of me and more of them, they always exceeded my highest expectations.  I was greatly comforted.  When I lay in bed unable to come to work (which happened every couple of weeks during my treatment for lymphoma), I was greatly comforted knowing that those people would work better, longer, and harder without me and I didn’t even have to ask.

So, what about the “greater good?”  I am not egocentric enough to identify the “greater good” that might have happened in other people’s lives because I had a little setback.  I do know that circumstances allowed me to encourage patients in the infusion center, my nurse, and doctors, but to the eternal consequences, I cannot attest.  But I do know the “greater good” that occurred in my life.

Personally, the “greatest good” of this experience was the more profound appreciation of my wife as a gift from God.  She took pretty good care of a grumpy guy during my treatments and her love and prayers were instrumental in my recovery.  This phenomenon has again been reinforced this past year when not once but twice, I thought my wife would die.  Thankfully, she is quite well now, but during those times in the ICU when she was on a ventilator, it was a little touch and go.

The second “greater good” was that it gave others the opportunity to regularly pray for me.  That may seem a little self-serving, but prayer can not only impact outcomes, but prayer changes those who pray.

Last, in retrospect, I now realize the personal “greater good.” I’m not going to live forever.  Intellectually, everyone knows they’re going to die and “everyone wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to go right now.”  But I have a peace about the fact that I shall, in the not too distant future, see the real “greater good” for my life and come face-to-face with Jesus.  As Paul said in 2 Corinthians:

“Therefore, we do not lose heart.  Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So, we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

Do you see “the greater good” for your life?  For you “the leader,” maybe it’s just the beginning.  Finish strong!