Leading in the Mean Time

In his parting remarks, outgoing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called on his State Department colleagues to lead with integrity and kindness even in what he experienced and identified as "a mean-spirited town." Mean spirited towns dominated by mean spirited people create a challenge for those who want to lead with goodness and truth in the mean time.

How do we lead well in mean times? First, we recognize that the mean time is the reality of all time between the first and second advents of Jesus. That's right. This is the mean time because it is the meantime.

In the meantime between Jesus' inauguration of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and its full institution, there is constant conflict. In the meantime, the Enemy seeks to lord it over as many as possible in his reign of death before the One who is the Life returns. That's the reality in the meantime and that's why we experience it as so mean.

When a person of light finds themselves in a city dominated by a spirit of darkness, there is a clash of worldviews, temperaments, and tactics. When Rex Tillerson publicly identified our nation's capital as being a "mean spirited city," everyone - EVERYONE - knew exactly what he was talking about. No one denied it. No one wondered what in the world he was referencing. There was uncomfortable laughter and there was full recognition that he spoken Truth.

I appreciate that in seeking to lead in a mean-spirited town in mean times, Tillerson did not become mean. That's the wide path taken by many. Resist it. Follow the lead of those who lead with integrity to Grace and Truth in all times, including the mean times.

God offers us shining examples of faithful mean time leaders in the Bible. Consider Boaz. In the days of the Judges, when everyone was doing what was right in his own eyes, lived with integrity to the transcendental virtues of goodness, beauty and truth. His faithfulness to God and his life of godliness shines as a beacon from a period of history that can only be described as mean. You can read Boaz's story in the book of Ruth. It is the story of redemption. It is the story of the Gospel. It is the story of a kinsman redeemer who is a man after God's own heart when virtually no one else is pursuing the Lord.

But Boaz is not alone as an exemplar for us of what Godly leadership looks like in the mean times. Joseph, Daniel and Jeremiah also come to mind. None of them lived in easy days. Each of them faced great adversity, personal grief and national challenges. But they led with integrity in mean-spirited cities in mean times.

Meanness, and its companions: coarse talk, self-promotion, bullying, and lying, make life difficult for those who are committed to live as people of Truth, on the Way of real Life. But over time, others are drawn to the light and love of the witness of those who keep the faith in the mean time.

Let us then encourage one another today - in the midst of mean-spirited cities and mean times. The Spirit within us is the Spirit of the One who overcomes the world; Light piercing darkness; Love triumphing over Sin; Life conquering Death - and all through the very real meanness of the Cross. The events of Holy Week will remind us at each turn that Jesus went to Jerusalem knowing full well the spirit of the Enemy was reigning there in the hearts of men. Jesus was never mean, even in the midst of very mean times. He was serious, He was intentional, He was focused, He was single-minded, He was faithful, He was truthful, He was Himself - and the mean spirited city in the mean times put Him to death. But only for the meantime.

The meantime of Holy Week is brief: from the burial to the Resurrection. But in that meantime there was great doubt and confusion even among Jesus' closest friends. Let us be gracious with one another as Christians in the meantime realities of life - and let us share the hope of Christ with those currently living as captives of the mean spirit of our age. Indeed, let us lead by faith in the mean time - proclaiming the hope set before us in the fullness of time.