One of my greatest learning’s in ministry over the past 15 years is to always ask the question, “Why”? If someone is afraid of answering the why questions of leadership for you, then there are other things lying around that they are just as uncomfortable answering.
I heard this poem again this week and I wonder what it would have been like if only one would have asked, “why”?
The Charge of the Light Brigade
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
1.Half a league, half a league, Half a league onward,All in the valley of Death Rode the six hundred.“Forward, the Light Brigade! “Charge for the guns!” he said: Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred.
2.”Forward, the Light Brigade!” 3.Cannon to right of them, 4.Flash’d all their sabres bare, 5.Cannon to right of them, 6.When can their glory fade? |
Copied from Poems of Alfred Tennyson,
J. E. Tilton and Company, Boston, 1870
I don’t recommend living by the three most famous lines in this poem, “Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die:” If you are to lead and/or follow…. Ask why? It will help you regardless of the situation you find yourself in.
Just a thought!
Half a league onward,