2. In the Carver's Hands

Leadership does not make a person any better.  It means that they are putting themselves into a position that allows God to use them to mold others.  It reminds me of a wood carver.  God is the wood carver, who has the vision, the goal, and the purpose for each one-of-a-kind creation.  The stump represents each of us, just a huge block, absolutely nothing until our creator starts working on us.  God uses chisels, like people in leadership, whom he has appointed to slowly work on and influence the stumps.  Although the chisels themselves are not doing anything, they are being used at the creator's will.  The chisels alone cannot do anything, but when put into the creator's hands, they are a very useful tool.  If the chisel were to try to do its own thing in the hands of the creator, the vision of the carver and the chisel would clash and it would be a mess.  I think this is a beautiful, yet humbling metaphor for leadership.

I agree more with the more contemporary ideas of shared leadership.  I believe that every one has some form of leadership qualities, whether they're obvious or subtle.  Some people can simply lead by quiet example.  Everyone has unique qualities that are useful in different situations.  No one is good in every situation.  When a team of people get together and just be themselves, each person has something to offer and together they form a successful leadership group.  Some people can even lead as followers--by being hardworking and being able to follow through to get tasks done.

In high school I was a part of a dance competition team.  We worked together and had a system to our practices.  We had specific practice days and times, and there was order to the routines we worked on.  In order to be a successful team we had to have order.  However, flexibility took a huge role in our team, because things never went as planned.  We had to be able to adapt to new situations and places when we went somewhere to compete.  Also, we had to be able to re-block dances if a girl was sick or injured.  Injuries caused the entire dance dynamic to change, and we all had to be able to be calm and positive when things occurred that were beyond our control.