{"id":100,"date":"2018-10-07T14:18:50","date_gmt":"2018-10-07T21:18:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/monicagrace\/?p=100"},"modified":"2018-10-07T14:18:50","modified_gmt":"2018-10-07T21:18:50","slug":"light-from-many-lamps-lead-kindly-light-the-night-is-dark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/monicagrace\/2018\/10\/07\/light-from-many-lamps-lead-kindly-light-the-night-is-dark\/","title":{"rendered":"Light from Many Lamps-“Lead, Kindly Light…the Night is Dark”"},"content":{"rendered":"

I chose John Henry Newman’s “Lead, Kindly Light…the Night is Dark, and I am Far from Home” in Part 2 for this assignment (Watson, 1951, p. 39-44). The leadership lesson I took from this reading was: leaders who experience trials can grow a greater faith and therefore a greater impact on the lives of others.<\/p>\n

This lesson really resonated with me, as I recently experienced a very difficult year of many trials including: difficult leadership situations and decisions, financial struggles, personal health issues and a family member passing away. This was only after a year of being in leadership and it was the hardest year of my life to date. Through the storms and trials, I grew a deeper and more resolute faith in Jesus and was humbled knowing how little control I had over my life.<\/p>\n

Similar to Newman, I experienced a miracle in my personal health situation and resolution in the other difficult circumstances within a few days. In my health situation my recovery was looking bleak and then I recovered far better than the doctors ever thought I could! I personally relate to this excerpt from this reading:<\/p>\n

All at once he saw meaning and purpose in the pattern of his suffering. He had been struck down by the hand of Providence — and by that hand had been raised up again! He felt sure he had been saved for a purpose, that God had work for him to do. He was filled with love and gratitude, and with a great humility (Watson, 1951, p. 40).<\/p>\n

Personally, that year was not an easy journey, but through it I experienced a greater depth in my understanding of God’s love for me and a thankfulness for the blessings I have. Similar to Newman, the way my health situation resolved gave me the same sense that God had allowed all this for a purpose and was raising me up again with a deeper trust, confidence and peace found in Him.<\/p>\n

It has been 10 months since those trials came to a close in a matter of days and my husband and I’s lives have been forever changed. I have seen how God used suffering, to make me stronger and now I see that my ministry is having a greater impact than it was before. Now, it is less about me and more about Jesus.<\/p>\n

My leadership has also changed, I have seen a great difference in the way I lead, in comparison to before. I still have my struggles and imperfections in my relationships and leadership. However, my roots in my relationship with Christ are deeper and I am not easily shaken, as I was before.<\/p>\n

I look back on that year now with a deep sense of gratitude that God allowed all that to happen and trusted me to walk through it. I still tear up remembering how difficult it was and there is still grief to process. However, in the same way that Newman’s hymn had such an impact on people, I know that God will use those dark times I experienced to shine light into the lives of others.<\/p>\n

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Header photo:\u00a0pexels.com<\/a>\u00a0by Lennart Kcotsttiw<\/a> shared under\u00a0Pexels (BY) license.<\/a><\/p>\n

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References<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Watson, L.E. (1951).\u00a0Light from Many Lamps<\/em>. New York: Simon and Schuster.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I chose John Henry Newman’s “Lead, Kindly Light…the Night is Dark, and I am Far from Home” in Part 2 for this assignment (Watson, 1951, p. 39-44). The leadership lesson I took from this reading was: leaders who experience trials can grow a greater faith and therefore a greater impact on the lives of others. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":445,"featured_media":109,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,13,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ldrs500","category-light-from-many-lamps","category-unit-2","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/monicagrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/monicagrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/monicagrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/monicagrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/445"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/monicagrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/monicagrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/monicagrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions\/133"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/monicagrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/monicagrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/monicagrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/monicagrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}