William Wallace and leadership

I have just finished reading my first historical fiction novel for the first time in what seems like years (I'm still working on Moby Dick) and a couple of relevant things jumped out at me.  The first was that Jack Whyte went out of his way trying to find the historical William Wallace, and after all his research declared that the movie Braveheart was surprisingly pretty accurate.  After reading his book, he actually cleared up a couple of points that the movie didn't quite spell out clearly, but I won't spoil it for you, it was a great read.

What stood out to me was that William Wallace wanted nothing to do with leading his party of outlaws in the Selkirk Forest once he found out that his wife Mirren was pregnant.  By this time he was the clear leader of the group, but for a period of 2 years he stepped back from leadership of the group and allowed others to step up into those roles that he had been doing.  The clerics that were in support of William Wallace thought it crazy that he could just step back, and that there was no way the people would allow him to do it, but they did.  When the situation between the English and Scots deteriorated, and William Wallace felt that he needed to fight beside leader Andrew Murray, he truly became the leader once again, but even more-so than he was before.  By being the man who would not easily abandon his first calling as a husband and father to fight for the Scottish crown, others looked to his leadership and respected him more for the fact he put his family first.  He was a man of his word, and he was not one to put aside his responsibilities lightly.  What was most awakening was what happened when he accepted his role as the true leader of the people.  It was then that he made a foolish mistake that cost him his wife and family.  Once he put others in front of his family (even for the most noblest of causes) did his family suffer the consequences.  What can Christian men learn from this?

We are called by God to provide, protect and disciple our spouse and children.  How often do we put other things in front of this command?  Pastors have been guilty of putting the church in front of their family.  Elders and Deacons have put family behind the church.  Lay leaders have set aside their most important responsibility of family in order to be more important in the church.  In every situation, the family suffers.  This does not glorify God.  We cannot claim to be righteous in our lack of duty for the greater sake of the church, or anything else.  Deut. 6:4-9 states "4 “Hear, O Israel: dThe Lord our God, the Lord is one.1 5 You eshall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And fthese words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 gYou shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 hYou shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 iYou shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."  Anyone who has attempted to do this simple yet most difficult thing would understand just how much time and diligence it takes, and to put anything in front of family means not adhering to the command by God to raise our children in the knowledge of God.  Men become natural leaders when they take responsibility for what God has commanded them to do, and when we look past our primary responsibilities, we then start making errors that hurt everyone, especially those closest to us.


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Dr. Oz Lorentzen will be expositing the scriptures for us for the next 2 Sundays.  We look forward to having Dr. Oz share with us at Spray Lakes Sawmills Family Rec. Centre.  Coffee served at 10am, service at 10:30.  Come join us.