I’ve recently been studying bread in scripture, and I stumbled across a phrase in Numbers 21:4, “The Soul of the People.” The verse is in the context of the people of Israel becoming dissatisfied and disenchanted as they find themselves hungering in the desert. Specifically it reads, “the soul of the people became very discouraged on the way.” I love that phrase, “soul of the people.” It puts words to something I have experienced as a leader and know I need more wisdom to understand. It puts words to the phenomena of mob-pleasing politics.
A group of people when they are assembled have a collective soul, and as leaders it is essential to know how to care for this soul.
I don’t think Moses knew how to do this well. As parents we must care for the soul of our family, or we might miss out on the potential promised land.
I want to speak today specifically about discouragement and its antithesis: celebration. I went on a hike last week. More accurately I went on a 30-hour body destroyer! I hiked approximately fifty miles alone, with a fifty-pound pack, and then biked about thirty more immediately following with the same pack on my back. It was the greatest test of endurance I have ever achieved because I was enduring for so long. It got hard within the first twenty miles, and I simply kept going. It simply kept going. I still am having trouble walking.
Celebration got me through.
At one point in the bike ride, I was able to ride one extremely long downhill section and I just screamed thanks all the way down. I screamed because my soul needed to celebrate. Celebration was the fuel my engine was running on. I had run out of physical strength long ago, and was overcoming defeat by celebrating each little victory. Hard things are like this. We celebrate their grandeur when they are finished, but they never get finished if we don’t celebrate each step along the way.
I’ve been there for the birth of four babies. It is the same way there. I’ve read accounts of war, and heard generals talk of morale. It is the same way there.
Great things are almost always hard things, and hard things require a healthy soul to complete. And a soul is kept healthy with celebration.
I am convinced this is true whether the soul is individual or collective.
My family and I recently put on a play, our own version of the “Beauty and the Beast.” It was an amazing experience, and afterwards it is easy to bask in the glory of the finished work. But the journey was difficult. Just like my hike, there were moments which it could have felt easier to give up. In fact, almost every dress rehearsal, Brie and I had to fight for the soul of our family. The kids were having a good time, and because of it they would laugh or joke when they shouldn’t, they would dance crazy when they should be acting something out. They weren’t perfect, and the soul of the leadership, at least, had the potential many times to become discouraged. What did we do? We celebrated. Against our feelings and against our frustrations, we celebrated the good lines, the proper timing, or the fun songs. We celebrated the victory of simply practicing together, and our celebration left our souls healthy enough to pull out a production to be proud of.
I am just sniffing up this tree, but I am convinced there is a substantial bear of leadership hiding inside of it.
Celebration is a central key to sustaining and caring for the soul of the people.
As parents and leaders, we must take time to celebrate, not with shallow praise, but legitimate celebration of the little victories of each day. Only with such celebration will we be poised to achieve the great victories for which celebration comes so easy.
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