Open Letter to “Leaders”
What does it mean to lead? Does it mean to ascend to powerful positions in which you control the actions and resources of others? Does it matter how you get there or who you have to “beat” to reach the top? Does it mean you must be loyal to those who got you to the top, even though their ultimate ambitions are not good?
Leadership is seeing a better, more efficient and empowering way of doing things – and communicating these ideas and ideals through personal adoption and implementation. To lead means to pull, not push. True leadership is powerful, and positive. Our natural balance on earth comes from the mind, body, and spirit being aligned for good. These three things are in constant change and motion – without change, we are stagnant and still, ultimately meaning there is no life. The essence of life is movement, even on a molecular level for good.
We fluctuate from being positive to negative in every single moment, with every little movement. Without a change in who we are, what we think, and where we are – we begin the path to the grave. We can never sit still. To become positive, we often come from a negative place since we can never be still. Good and even great leaders at the top, ascend by being positive – sharing their positive outlook and better vision of the future compared to the current, and present reality. They attract positive people by being real. When the body, mind, and spirit are aligned we begin to implement positive change in others to maintain balance.
On the contrary, negative people take from others. Their bodies, minds, and spirits are not aligned with promoting life and growth. Leaders can be negative and take from other’s positive works. They see good and want to destroy it because they know their selfish, greedy ambitions will ultimately be exposed. God is watching and knows your motives for every action. Negative spirits will show themselves through the body or mind and others will see it. Negative leaders will propagate hate, want to control the actions and resources of others, and often stop at nothing until their objectives are achieved. Often in business and politics – greed dominates decisions. Loyalty to the bottom line and financial or personal supporters. What they lack is loyalty to life itself. The very essence of their creation, in the image of their creator is to live and promote life by sharing and giving.
The most powerful and ironically most underused expression in life is I LOVE YOU. We need to wear those words out, not by just saying them – but with true meaning. To say I love you, is to say I am living too and I want you to live.
Often people question God and the Bible – citing sources and stories detailing the frustrations of God and his wrath. They say, “If God is so great, then why would he make me suffer?” This so-called “suffering” is not out of hatred, but rather LOVE. To grow and align ourselves with God we must seek wisdom, knowledge, and share our love and share our pains. Share you story of struggle, because everyone else is struggling too, always. Our source of pain is also our source of strength. If God put you through pain, it is your place to grow from it and share this pain with others in order to help them grow through your sacrifice.
Putting on a face that says, “I’m okay,” when you are not means you still have some growing to do and the pain will prolong until you realize that it is okay to be in pain, it means you are still living. Our individual lives are lived through our own perception of reality. Our reality is how we perceive the world and we can change it – right now, with a change in your attitude. We will never be perfect, now will the world be, because we nor it, was designed to be that way. The word “perfect” is a made-up word meaning: as good as it can be for now. It is just a word.
Nothing will ever be perfect except for the love we share for others. We will always fight, be terrible to one another, but we must be loyal to the creation of life – not the destruction and justification of it. We are not the ones in charge of who gets to live or die. No life has a price or worth associated to it. WE ARE ALL CREATED EQUAL, AND REMAIN EQUAL. We must be positive and strong as leaders. The strongest leaders will have a clear and true vision, even when attacked and beaten down. We must hold them to a high standard, as humanly possible. We must offer forgiveness for offenses, from a source of love and understanding that while we are equal, we will never be perfect. Only our creator (God) can all us perfect.
Integrity and honesty are virtues we must commit to. There will be failures from even the best of people. A pope, a principal, a president – are all human and by being human by definition we will fail ourselves and God in seeking to be the best we can be. To grow we must be honest and receive criticism from others to move to a better place – a positive place, that we are pulled to. Leaders must lead by pulling negative people up with their positivity. It is hard work. The hard work begins first on our individual hardened hearts. To recognize that although our intent is good, sometimes things do not go as intended. As best we can we must admit and accept, that before proceeding we will fail. However, we must realize this before doing any good deed and commit ourselves to the truth.
Joshua David Kapellusch