“It’s time to get out of the driver’s seat and into the passenger’s seat.” -- God to John Paine

My friend John Paine, entrepreneur and businessman, has ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, a totally debilitating illness that slowly takes the life out of you.

ALS gradually takes away the use of your limbs, your ability to swallow, your voice, and finally your capacity to breathe. The first to go for John was his arms. One night about six years ago he was struggling to cover himself as he got into bed. His wife, Margaret, was already sleeping, and John wanted to take care of himself as he always had. After wrestling for some time to get the covers over him, he got out of bed and cried out to God in frustration. It was then that God spoke to John in his mind and said, “It’s time to get out of the driver’s seat and into the passenger’s seat. I designed you for dependence, not independence. I want you to be dependent on me and on others.”  The point of the message was that John could no longer be independent, not even to not even to pull the sheets over him. God also promised at that time that He would take care of John, a promise he has kept to this very day. What painful words for a man who had started and sold several businesses and always striven to his utmost to be independent in order to show others that he could do what they said he could not do.

Could there be a greater message than this for leaders?  We love to be in the driver’s seat, to call the shots, to be in control, to show others we can do what they say we can’t do. Sooner or later God is going to say to every leader what He said to John—“It’s time to get out of the driver’s seat and into the passenger’s seat.” God is funny that way; He actually thinks He should be in control, and He actively works against us to break our control and make us dependent, not only on Him but on others. Sometimes He forces us to become dependent on others we feel are inferior to us. Isn’t that humbling!

At Leader Formation International we focus on the process God uses to get us out of the driver’s seat and into the passenger’s seat in order to help leaders understand how He works in their lives. As leaders our job is to go along for the ride with God as the driver, but He has to bring us to a place of helplessness and humility before we’ll move over.  To get us to move over He may remove us from leadership or bring us into failure or take us to heights of success marked by such harsh criticism and personal attacks that we wonder if it’s worth it. What makes it worth it is that we are becoming His leaders, dependent on Him, going along for the ride by trusting Him and not ourselves.

So move over and let God drive. But hang on—God is the wildest driver you’ll ever ride with. After all, what’s He got to lose?

Ps: John says, “It’s only when I move over that I truly experience God’s power in my life.”

Bill