Bennett Sims, Parker Palmer: Perfectionist
“The blemishes in heroes are signs of the most profound paradox of servant leadership: perfection lies precisely in the readiness to own one’s imperfection. God is not a perfectionist. God cannot be a perfectionist and continue to allow the world to exist, especially that part of the world that follows Jesus and yet looks so little like him—the church. God’s perfectionism is anti-perfectionist.
The biggest hindrance to the high quality of leadership that honors the gifts and freedom of others is the fear of being found out for who we really are: conspicuously imperfect people.”—Bennett Sims in Servanthood, Leadership for the Third Millennium,(Cowley 1997) pp. 23-24.
I wonder if the Episcopal bishop, Bennett Sims, and the Quaker writer Parker Palmer ever met, for their writings cross paths. Parker Palmer writes in Let Your Life Speak about the five shadows in leaders that lead them to fail if they do not recognize them. First is insecurity about their identity and worth, so that their identity depends on their role or power it gives to them over others.
Second, Palmer describes the shadow of believing that the world is a competitive battleground with allies and enemies. The third is functional atheism, the belief that the ultimate responsibility of everything falls on us. The fourth shadow is a fear of chaos, bringing about rigid rules and procedures to improve rather than empower the people with whom the leader works. They forget that creativity comes out of chaos. Lastly, leaders will fail if they deny the possibility of death, resuscitating things that no longer are alive.
Today, Palmer and Sims remind us what keeps us from being servant leaders. They are giving us more STOP signs. When we see these qualities in ourselves, their message is to stop and turn around. We are going in the wrong direction. This path is not leading to God within us. We also cannot see God in others on this path. Ironically, we often first see these shadow qualities in someone else and realize how destructive they are. Finally, we turn inward with an awful awareness that we may possess these shadows and that they are keeping us from connecting to God and others.
Joanna joannaseibert.com
Thank you for support our camp and conference center, Camp Mitchell, on top of Petit Jean Mountain, by buying this book in the daily series of writings for the liturgical year, A Daily Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter. All of the proceeds from the books go to Camp Mitchell. If you like this book, could you take a brief moment to write a recommendation on its page on Amazon? https://smile.amazon.com/Daily-Spiritual-RX-Lent-Easter/dp/0578425130/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=joanna+seibert&qid=1620904788&sr=8-3
More thank-you’s than we can say!!!
