Are You Really a Leader?

I will never forget playing basketball my freshman year of college. I had just graduated from a Christian high school and was ready to impact all of my fellow teammates. While on road trips, I would have to stay in a room with two other teammates. During every trip, I would deliberately take out my Bible at night and do a quiet time, thinking that if my teammates saw me reading the Bible, they would ask questions. I thought by doing this, I was being a leader.

At the same time I was doing quiet times, I was struggling with sinful language. During practices, games, or just walking around campus with my teammates, profanity was always coming out of my mouth. I felt I had to be that way to get respect from my teammates and to be taken seriously.

As I look back on that year, was I really being a leader? Yeah, I was doing my quiet times unashamed in a room where my teammates could see me, but outside of that time I was talking, acting, and living just like they were. Why would my teammates want to change their lives and follow Jesus if I was living the same way they were?