Effective leaders assume responsibility for their team’s wellbeing even when their personal life is putting them under enormous pressure. Read Mark 14:32-42.

Jesus is in Jerusalem just prior to His crucifixion. Jesus has eaten His last meal with His disciples and they have gone outside the city walls to spend the night outdoors in a garden known as Gethsemane. Jesus was aware it was His time to become the sacrificial Lamb of God and He was preparing Himself for His coming death at the hands of the religious leaders and the Roman soldiers. Jesus took a few of His closest friends a short distance from the other disciples and asked them to watch and pray with Him. Verse 33 says, “He began to be deeply distressed and troubled.” Luke 22:44 tells us that His perspiration became drops of blood. His personal situation made Him vulnerable to fear and discouragement. He was counting on His friends for support.

A Christian leader should seek to match their values with values stated as desirable in God’s Word. Read Jonah 4:1-11.

Jonah felt great delight when God planned to destroy the wicked people of Nineveh. Jonah didn’t pull any punches; he wanted the city of Nineveh, the center of the Assyrian empire that had tortured his people for years, destroyed. Jonah was angry when God showed compassion and did not bring about the destruction that Jonah felt the Assyrians deserved. Jonah failed as a prophet because he abandoned his God-honoring values and acted on his own sense of what God should do. Jonah’s values failed to match God’s values.