The story of Eddie V. Rickenbacker in Light From Many Lamps contains a couple valuable leadership lessons (Watson, 1951). The story is about him and seven other men who are stranded in the Pacific Ocean on a few rubber life rafts (Watson, 1951, p.62). Being stranded they have no food or water and they are faced with the challenge of what to do (Watson, 1951, p.62). The first leadership lesson comes out of Rickenbacker’s response to this situation. Regardless of the situation being seemingly hopeless he refuses to lose hope. There are often times in leadership where I have been discouraged and want to join the ranks, or at times I am ashamed to say have lead the ranks, in complaining and despair. This story served as a reminder that a leader does not lose hope. This is immediately applicable to my life and leadership as there are some current structural and systemic challenges I am facing. These have been ongoing and it is easy to despair, but this has served as a reminder to continue to hope.

The second leadership lesson is to be humble and pray. It says that Rickenbacker was able to hope because he believed in prayer. Prayer requires humility because by its nature it involves acknowledging that one cannot succeed or overcome alone. Furthermore, it acknowledges God’s sovereignty regardless of the situation. I work in a Christian ministry context and it is easy for me to be distracted with all the tasks I need to accomplish. While it is true that I need to accomplish tasks, I never want to do so at the expense of forgetting that turning to Jesus needs to be my first priority. As a Christian leader I think that humbling myself and praying is of utmost importance. Further than that, I think that it is important, regardless of context, for every Christian leader to acknowledge God’s sovereignty. My experience has been that doing this keeps me humble and allows me to handle difficult situations with more grace than I would otherwise be able to.

References

Watson, L.E. (1951). Light from many lamps. New York: Simon and Schuster.