"If I have done anything in my life, I have done it as a relative of the donkey that went its way carrying an important burden. The disciples had said to its owner, 'The Lord has need of it.' And so it seems to have pleased God to have used me at this time, just as I was, in spite of all the things, the disagreeable things, that quite rightly are and will be said about me. Thus I was used. That is how I happened to be present and that was my work. I just happened to be on the spot."

A friend Dr. Jay Kessler, former president of Youth for Christ/USA and Taylor University , in a semi-humorous mood said, "Brian, sometimes leading is just showing up."

Now you and I know that to make this a definition of leadership is foolish. But it does help me understand—on days when I wonder what value I am—that people need me to be there.

There are days when I lack the energy to drive a vision, or times when appointments seem unnecessary to the enterprise. I wonder, "Why do they need me? In fact, do I really matter at all?" Then I show up and something comes out of the woodwork, and surprise—me being there matters!

We needn't feel the rippling muscle of leadership to remind us of the importance to lead. Sometimes God wants us to be in a place of his choosing to do what he knows needs doing. Showing up isn't as irrelevant to leadership as we sometimes might imagine.

Prayer—
Father, on this day when leading seems less than what I think matters, may your call to faithfulness overrule, so that in walking in my world today, I might be where you want me to be, to do what you know needs doing. Amen.