called or driven?

I'm currently reading Gordon MacDonald's devotional classic "Ordering Your Private World." The book has a tremendous premise: to their detriment, Christians (and especially pastors) tend to focus on the seen life, when their private lives are much more fundamental in their ultimate success or failure.

His message really hit home for me on many occasions, but the chapter which dealt with our motivation for Christian leadership hit me like a punch in the gut. MacDonald believes that some lead in response to God's calling, and some lead because they are internally driven. Some unfortunate symptoms he identified of those who are driven:

1. A driven person is most often gratified only by accomplishment.
(success is found only in a goal achieved, never in the journey or in lessons learned)

2. A driven person is preoccupied with the symbols of accomplishment.
(it only feels like success if others know and celebrate it)

3. A driven person is usually caught in the uncontrolled pursuit of expansion.
(there can never be enough success/accomplishment to satisfy)

4. Driven people tend to have a limited regard for integrity.
(ends justify means)

5. Driven people are not likely to bother themselves with the honing of people skills.
(there is usually a "trail of bodies" in the wake of the driven leader. "He's really hard to work with, but he sure gets things done" should never characterize the Christian leader)

6. Driven people tend to be highly competitive.
(self worth comes from besting others)

7. A driven person often possesses a volcanic force of anger.
(because his identity is in his accomplishment, anyone that might make him look bad can be the recipient of his sarcasm, biting remarks or unrestrained anger)

8. Driven people are usually abnormally busy, are averse to play, and usually avoid spiritual worship.

These are characteristics that I've often recognized in my own life. I think most driven leaders were called at one time, and at various points, they get off track (think of King Saul, I Samuel 10-31). What we need is to reacquaint ourselves with the voice of God and its primacy in our lives. We need to ask again some foundational questions: What's important to God? Who am I in Him? What are His metrics of success? And finally, what is God asking me to do? When we choose to move in response to His voice, instead of the urging of our ego, we'll find peace, confidence and true success.


"You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had: Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross." Philippians 2:5-8.