Helping Others..

I like to listen to the Dave Ramsey podcast every day.

Yesterday, Dave spoke with an older, retired woman whose husband had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's seven years previously. They ran up credit card debt doing things together while she felt they still could. She's on a fixed income now, he's in a nursing home on Medicaid, which has put a lien on her house. She can still live there, but can't sell it, and when she passes away, Medicaid gets it to defray the cost of taking care of her husband.

Dave spent a good deal of time talking to her. He told her the truth in love. She's in a tight spot, no doubt. Much more month left at the end of the money for her bills than she could do anything with. And there simply aren't things she can do any more, the rest of her life. It doesn't make her a bad person, because she's not. It just means she needs a guide to walk the rest of this race.

What I think I like most about the way Dave works is that he's not afraid to tell you the truth, in love. And more than that, he's not afraid to help you find a solution that's rooted in keeping it simply and straightforward. In this case, he told her he was going to provide a counselor in her area to help hold her hand through this, free of charge. Why? Certainly he could afford to give it away, absolutely. But more than that, compassion is part of the culture he surrounds himself with. His organization seeks justice, loves mercy, and embraces compassion.

When things become all about me, me, me...we become dull, dull, dull. It's far more important to elevate others, to focus on things external, and when we look outward and put our energies into those things, we can't be drained by internal struggles, stress and strife. By lifting others up, we often will find that they reach down and pull us up with them.

A servant-leader is just that, first a servant, then a leader. They do not lead with an iron rod, or a sharp tongue, but in a humble way. A servant-leader knows that if no one follows them because they want to follow them, then they aren't truly a leader at all...just a boss.