Skip to main content

Leaders versus dealers

Image
By
It is 3:55am and I have decided to write.

We all should be the leaders of our own lives. Good leaders allow us to develop ourselves to the point where we can become our own leaders. Too often, what we see instead are die-hard followers and fans of leaders who are not allowed to question anything, but are expected to blindly support.

If I rearrange the letters of "leader" I can get "dealer".

We need leaders, not dealers.

Dealers trade in influence, emotions, loyalty, and power for personal gain, while leaders elevate people beyond dependence. There is a difference between leadership that empowers and leadership that creates dependency.

This made me think about God as the grand example of good leadership. I think the same principle applies. God gave us free will, and we are told that God helps those who help themselves. If God gave human beings minds, curiosity, conscience, and moral awareness, then perhaps faith was never meant to replace them, but to guide them.

I think there is a conflict. I cannot reconcile what I said with the fact that we need and depend on God and we always will. Maybe the problem is not dependence itself. Every human being depends on something. The real question is whether what we depend on diminishes us or helps us grow.

There is a theological concept called synergy—the idea that God's grace and human effort work together. A dealer wants to do the thinking for you. A leader (like God) wants to think with you.

Many believers would argue that God, unlike insecure human leaders, would not fear honest questioning. Moses questioned God repeatedly. In many traditions, sincere questioning is not rebellion, but part of faith maturing.

A dealer says: "Do not think. Just obey me."
A true leader says: "Grow in wisdom, conscience, and understanding."

Faith and following God is supposed to be empowering. Not empowering the ego, but empowering the soul, the conscience, and the mind. A faith that destroys curiosity, honesty, or the ability to question becomes the unhelpful dependence rather than spiritual growth.

True faith should not make people smaller. It should make them wiser, stronger, kinder, and more awake.

Maybe the highest form of leadership does not create sleepy followers. Maybe it helps people become fully awake to themselves, to others, and to God. Good leaders happen when dependence is empowering. Dealers happen when dependence is debilitating.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Stuck running sftp server on termux alpine for multi-user setup

By
The below is my journey trying to get multi-user sftp working using alpine on termux pkg update && pkg upgrade pkg install proot-distro openssh proot-distro install alpine proot-distro login alpine apk update apk upgrade apk add openssh shadow sudo apk add vim vim /etc/ssh/sshd_config Port 8022 PermitRootLogin no PasswordAuthentication yes Subsystem sftp internal-sftp Match Group sftpusers     ChrootDirectory /sftp/%u     ForceCommand internal-sftp     X11Forwarding no     AllowTcpForwarding no addgroup sftpusers adduser user1 adduser user1 sftpusers mkdir -p /sftp/user1/upload chown root:root /sftp/user1 chmod 755 /sftp/user1 chown user1:sftpusers /sftp/user1/upload How I run my server each time pkill sshd rm -f /etc/ssh/ssh_host_* ssh-keygen -A /usr/sbin/sshd -D -d -d -d From another termux session sftp -P 8022 user1@127.0.0.1 Connection reset by 127.0.0.1 port 8022 Connection closed Some troubleshooting steps mkdir -p /run/sshd chmod 75...
Post a Comment
Read more

Recursion example with SQL

By
I asked my friend Chatty, can you use recursion in SQL? For example I have a table (ID, value) ordered by increasing ID. Can you guide me through using recursion to select all the rows of consecutive repeated values using and creating an SQLite database. Provide the small sample data. Is there a better way to do this? A More Modern Alternative (Window Functions) In real-world SQL, this problem is usually solved more efficiently using window functions like: LAG() ROW_NUMBER() SUM() OVER But recursion is excellent for learning traversal logic and hierarchical thinking. Recursion example using sqlite on termux DROP TABLE IF EXISTS sample; CREATE TABLE sample (     id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,     value TEXT ); INSERT INTO sample (id, value) VALUES (1, 'A'), (2, 'A'), (3, 'A'), (4, 'B'), (5, 'B'), (6, 'C'), (7, 'A'), (8, 'A'), (9, 'D'), (10, 'D'), (11, 'D'), (12, 'D'); WITH RECURSIVE grouped AS (    ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Bless us today

By
It is 515pm and I have decided to write. Today is the day before the holiday and it feels like a Friday. I did not feel like doing anything this afternoon. But I got up and made dinner. Then brush my teeth and bathe. A round of applause to all of us for being alive and making it through the day. There are many things we can applaud ourselves for. There are many things we can applaud others for. It is good to pat ourselves (and others) on the shoulders now and again. Life is not easy. No one has it easy. Comfort is an illusion. But God is real and so we pray. It is 214pm on the following Monday and I have decided to continue my writing. I have this thought. God is holding my hand and we are walking. Walking in empty space. I closed my eyes and selected a verse from the holy Quran. I landed on surah 94 verse 5 - so verily with hardship there is ease. No matter how and when we are tested we must remind ourselves of the goodness of God. God is not going to leave us stranded and empty hande...
Post a Comment
Read more