Gboyega Adedeji shares his inspired thought on The Rooted Leader: How To Become A Person of Influence in a live cast – powered by Centre for New Dimension Leadership Abuja, Nigeria.
Good day everyone and thanks for joining me on this edition of Leaderview, how has your week been so far? Hope it has been great, God bless you. You see, it is important that we discuss leadership and today, we will be doing just that on this edition of Leaderview. The matter of leadership is something we will never stop discussing. Perhaps you are wondering, “When are we going to stop talking about leadership?” We would never stop, as a matter of fact, just as we would never stop discussing about food, about oxygen we breath, we can’t stop discussing leadership or its influence upon us as a people.
Today very quickly, we want to examine what has been titled “The Rooted Leader” and how you and I can grow our influence and become persons of influence in our generation! We would be examining from the book of Matthew 13 from verses 1-9 and from there, we would launch into the deep.
1 On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea. 2 And great multitudes were gathered together to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.
3 Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. 5 Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. 6 But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. 8 But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 He who has ears to hear let him hear!”
Matthew 13:1-9
Now if you listen to the concluding statement of that Scripture, it informs us that we could learn certain lessons from this matter, and what we learn is subject to our decision. Jesus said, “a sower went out to sow; and as he sowed, some fell”. We want to see this Scripture from the angle of the seed that is being sown. Verse five says that some of these seeds fell on stony places. Now we are talking about the seeds and where they fell, the places they fell. The Scripture described a place as a stony place. A stony place is a place that has little or no earth. It is such a place that is difficult for any serious penetration.
Because the place is a stony place, the seed was unable to find the necessary and required earth to be rooted. What this teaches us by the way is that you should not be overwhelmed by the seeming success of people around you, you should not be discouraged or get yourself into a jealous or envious mood simply because you do not know the phase that they are in. The reason is because they could be a people with little or no earth, and because of that; they spring up quite rapidly, and their impacts are visible as quickly as possible. Yet, you may be wondering you have been doing the same thing for quite a number of weeks or months or days perhaps, and you are getting little or no result.
Now don’t get overwhelmed because your friends or your folks are succeeding because you cannot tell of the manner of their success, you cannot determine whether they have root or lack one. Verse six says “But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away” It tells you that whatever it is that you are envying was not a sustainable achievement for those people. Now you saw them as progressing, but they were progressing at a deteriorating rate, at a rate that is destructive and not to be envied, they were not spending time to be rooted, but they were spending time to be noticed, to be seen and to be functional. They were functioning without having a right base to function. Now it is important for you and I to understand that for our influence to be lasting, we must become rooted leaders.
You see, we must translate from being pastoral seeds to seeds that have become stable; and that have found places. It is important that a seed that has fallen so to say, to remain where it falls. That is very important. Now you would wish and you would pray that you as a seed fall into the right place, but when you fall to your right place; do you have the right attitude? Do you stay in such a place or do you jump from place to place? Do you tell yourself ‘I have spent a good while here, let me move to the other side’? And because you kept uprooting yourself, you are not able to take enough roots downward. And so you are not able to remain and be sustainable.
Your influence is not sustainable; your leadership is not remaining, it is important you understand this. If you would become a fruitful tree, then you must learn to stay where you are planted. When you stay in the place of your planting, you must function there. Don’t just stay there complaining, you must function in the place. You need enough earth for you to take root, and if you do not have enough earth, even when you wish you take root, you will not be able to do so. Taking your time to settle where you have been planted is you getting enough earth, because any surface can have enough earth over a period of time.
Have you noticed when driving by some mountains, how some trees have been able to grow and stay strong on those mountains without falling off? The reason is simple: it is because those trees have been able to garner enough earth over the years while standing on those mountains and so, they have remained. What I am trying to say is this: “It takes time for you to find enough earth in a particular place that you are sent to or that you are. And so, if what you do is to move from place to place, you may not be able to get enough earth for you to get deeply rooted, and if you do not take enough root, your leadership is not likely to remain.” You are not likely to be a sustainable leader. And when the sun comes, you are likely going to be scorched. If you are not going to be scorched by the sun, it is because you have settled in for a while, and you have become established in that particular place that you have enough earth to be rooted in. And so, when the sun comes, it is not able to sap you dry because you are tapping from the experience and from the knowledge that you have gathered and accumulated over the years in the same field in the same place, doing the same thing.
Now the point is, for your leadership to become really influential, you must be rooted. You cannot be rooted when you are moving from place to place, from vocation to vocation, from platform to platform. If you are changing territories, you cannot be rooted. You must find the right place for yourself and you must stay there. When you get there you must be functional in such a place. And as you do that, you become a fruitful tree; you become both productive and influential as well. People consider you to be an entity that cannot be disregarded or covered up simply because you have been there for quite a while, and you have been on it for some time now.
You need time to grow your influence, you need experience as well. Don’t get comfortable with little successes here and there, that you are able to spring up quickly should not move you too much because it could lead you into error and give you wrong impression. But you must understand that even though it is taking you time to grow, as long as you are taking root downward, you are doing the right thing.
That is the word that has been impressed upon my spirit to share with you about your leadership emergence. It is important you remember that it is not enough to become a seed, it is not enough to just fall anywhere, you must find the right place and you must remain there. When you get there, you must be functional in that place. And not just that, you must allow time to pass in order for you to accumulate enough experience and knowledge, so that you can be rooted, established and stable in your own place. Don’t go around looking for places to shine, you must find the right spot and shine as light there.
Don’t look for spotlight, look for the right spot and shine as light in such a place and in such places. I believe God has created you to shine as light in a particular place, find that place and stay there. Don’t worry, it could take time but stay there functioning; doing what you have been sent there to do. Stay there and be productive. As you do that, you become an entity that is a reference for others. As people talk about the matters you are dealing with, then people would remember you.
That is how to grow your influence, that is how to become a leader over a long haul, that is how to perpetuate your leadership influence over generations. Don’t become a pastoral leader, become an established leaderand find the right place to function. God bless you.
