Just two words.
So easily trampled, in the velocity of life.
Pushed along by the daily torrent of priorities,
Work, eat, sleep, friends, family and wife.

Just three syllables.
Holy simplicity saturates the phrase.
Deadlines, calendars, clocks and achievements,
Become the altars that we praise.

Just eight letters
Overlooked in both the planned and unexpected.
Navigating the alphabet soup of daily life,
Chaotic complexity of momentum that must be corrected.

From birth the megaphone of culture blares:
“Focus! Become a leader. We know you can.”
Force-fed seminars, CD’s, books and incessant lectures.
“Following’s for wimps. Life rewards leaders my young man!”

On the inside of every publication,
“Only leaders matter,” they all shout.
One-sided, insensitive exclusion,
Overlooking the masses deemed left out.

Leaders in the workplace,
Literally populate this land.
Lured by promotion, money, power and authority,
Leaving indelible impressions, Peter’s principle’s at hand.

Lurking in schools, government and churches,
Lambasting the intended function of the term,
Learning to become what one is not,
Living a lie that makes one unnecessarily squirm.

Overblown emphasis on anything,
Obliterates the balance intended to be,
Ominous, overbearing and omnipresent.
One can’t seem to escape this tragedy.

What did he intend,
When He uttered this supernatural certainty?
Where will our present leadership obsession take us?
Why must we obscure His truth with trendy, pop-culture creativity?

Many are the sheep,
Matter of fact, leaders we dwarf in number.
Mercy shower upon us, our dear Shepherd,
May the pangs of heartfelt repentance awaken us from our slumber.

Embedded messages of leadership confound me.
Enduring the restlessness of lost sleep.
Eternal truth of My Shepherd,
“Enjoy and be My sheep.”

Just one space between the words,
After “Follow,” yet, behind “Me.”
In quiet contemplation a voice whispers,
“This spot is reserved for thee.”