4 Obstacles Moses Faced as a Leader

bigstock-Footprints-on-sand-dune-Sahar-16402469

Could anyone have felt the weight of leadership more than Moses?

Poor speaker. Enemies chasing him. His own people complaining every time the food ran short or the water gave out. Sent into a desert with no map and no timeline. If anyone had a reason to quit, it was him.

What Moses was up against:

A poor speaker.

Enemies at his back.

His own people complaining.

A desert with no map.

I know a smaller version of that weight.

More than once in my career, I was brought into an organization to lead change. I wish I could tell you it went smoothly. It didn't. Any leader reading this who tells you it went smoothly for them is lying.

A few months into one of those roles, I was overwhelmed. My boss came by my office to see how I was doing, and I broke down. I told him I didn't think I was making a difference — that nothing was actually moving. He listened. Then he said one thing: this is a marathon, not a sprint. Keep moving.

Years later, same role, still pushing the same changes, the pushback came from every direction — my own team, people outside it who felt the change land on them too. It hurt. I remember feeling like I was leading and no one was following.

What got Moses through wasn't a strategy. It was presence — time alone with God before anything else. Then it was people. Leaders who held his arms up when he couldn't hold them up himself (Exodus 17:11-13). Mentors who told him the truth about how he was leading (Exodus 18:14-21). He didn't carry it alone. He was never supposed to.

I made it through the marathon because someone sat in my office the day I broke down, and someone years earlier told me the truth about the pace before I needed to hear it.

Leadership was never meant to be carried alone.

Who's in your office when you break down?