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Leaders versus dealers

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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.
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