This thought came to me as I drove home past Columbia Lake. As I crossed over a very ordinary little bridge spanning a small stream  it dawned on me that this is the mighty Columbia River that eventually supplies water for the hydro-electric power that lights the night and for the irrigation systems that produce food for much of the north western USA. I read somewhere that the Koine Greek word translated as “head” (as in Christ is head of the church) in most English versions of the Bible, carries the connotation of the source or the head as in headwaters.

The source of the headwaters of this river is a beautiful lake in the Rocky Mountain trench. The little Columbia River is backed up by something much greater than itself.

 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.

(Ephesians 4:15)

You cannot give what you have never received. It is not authority or recognition of position or honour flowing back to a leader that makes them great. It is what flows out of a person that makes them great -and a great leader knows his or her Source.