{"id":29794,"date":"2022-12-07T09:30:13","date_gmt":"2022-12-07T17:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=29794"},"modified":"2022-12-07T10:08:28","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T18:08:28","slug":"resilience-made-in-rwanda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/resilience-made-in-rwanda\/","title":{"rendered":"Resilience made in Rwanda"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tod Bolsinger’s Tempered Resilience, <\/em>like other themes we have seen in recent days, reveal that leadership formation is a challenging journey. “Bolsinger suggests four critical characteristics and specific practices to produce grounded resilience necessary for transformational leadership through change.”[1]<\/a> As seen in other sources, these themes somehow suggest that to attain a worthwhile status of leadership, an element of toughness and hardening of character cannot miss. \u201cTodd Bolsinger makes the case that this process of becoming a tempered resilient and resilient leader involves six steps: Working, heating, holding, hammering hewing, tempering.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

Resilience has become a fascinating subject for me for several years. I wish to look at what Bolsinger says and investigate if applicable to the wounded, the survivors of visible and invisible wounds, whether combat or non-combat related. <\/em>Discussing whether leaders are born or made, most of the authors we are interacting with agree that leaders are continually formed and strengthened through leadership challenges. Looking at Bolsinger’s work, supported by his personal experience and research, I can see a correlation between leadership formation and suffering. There must be ways that God manifests and perfects his work through our various forms of suffering.<\/p>\n

Can the wounded lead?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cPoole\u2019s conviction is that real leadership learn their craft the hard way through \u201ccritical incidents\u201d that test their mettle.\u201d[3]<\/a> I know it is not funny, but I try to make a joke out of it, especially when I speak to new audiences! Here is the joke; \u201cInstead of nurses, gynecologists, and midwives, my mother gave birth to me in the company of lions, hyenas, snakes, and other wild animals.\u201d Life would have lost its meaning to me had I not figured out the resilient and transformational leadership theme. I was born while my parents were on the way from the killings in Rwanda to Uganda. My last name Ndahiriwe English meaning is blessed. I asked curiously why my parents had named me blessed; was I the most handsome baby ever seen? Was I the only boy? Did I hold a promise of greatness that they saw in the eyes of this infant? The answer was very depressing, \u201cYou were not expected to survive,\u201d said my father when I asked.<\/p>\n

This is more than tampering.<\/strong><\/p>\n

After surviving the genocide and in the refugee camp of Western Uganda, my highest desire was to be a conduit of forgiveness, peace, and reconciliation. \u00a0It wasn\u2019t long till I realized how complex the work of ethnic reconciliation in Rwanda would be. I ended up more depressed and broken to my core; the wounds of my past were brought to life, and I realized I might be more broken and wounded than I am zealous for the nation’s healing. The blessing of resources came in handy; I can\u2019t be thankful enough for my dual citizenship. I still pray and hope to serve the most struggling survivors of the worst atrocities of war and civil unrest. The women victims of these atrocities and the young children bear the heaviest burdens. \u201cMoreover, some mothers spoke about their children born of genocidal rape as a living embodiment of interethnic tensions in the aftermath of the genocide, which led to additional challenges for belonging within existing family structures.\u201d[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

The four characteristics are teachable, attuned, adaptable, and tenacious. Bolsinger walks the reader through each one of these characteristics and ties them together through a \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 consistent illustration of tempering steel. His argument is supported by personal experience, academic research, and biblical concepts. Each one of these characteristics is developed and grounded in four correlating practices the four practices are learning, listening, looking, and lamenting.[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

Lamentation <\/strong><\/p>\n

The Psalmist reminds us that “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” Psalm 147:3. As Bolsinger shares these characteristics, we are reminded of lamentation; these essential lessons don’t come in beautifully raped gifts from heaven but through some hardships and challenges on the leadership journey. There are times of tears and hopelessness, times we wonder and ask God’s whereabouts, yet amidst these hurtful times is where he shows up for our rescue and teaching.<\/p>\n

Hopelessness often comes at the point in your life when you feel you have hit rock bottom. But as I always like to point out, God will often let us hit rock bottom so that we will discover that He is the Rock at the bottom. Hopelessness is often born out of difficulties, defeats, and discouragements. And while these things are painful, there are seasons when the Lord uses our suffering to grow and strengthen us. These are the times when He sees fit to strip us of our self-sufficiency.[6]<\/a><\/p>\n

David, the author of Psalm, must have been with the Rock at the bottom a lot, and he teaches us a lot about lamenting. Indeed, this kind of growth is essential, and there must be some maturity levels that we would not attain unless we hit rock bottom! Nouwen is one of my favorite authors, and he writes in the wounded healer<\/em> about the wounded minister.<\/p>\n

He is sitting among the poor, covered with wounds. The others unbind all their wounds at the same time and then bind them up again. But he unbinds one at a time and binds it \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 up again, saying to himself, ‘Perhaps I shall be needed: if so, I must always be ready so\u00a0 as not to delay for a moment.’ (Taken from the tractate Sanhedrin)[7]<\/a><\/p>\n

There is no doubt, suffering is essential to our growth as leaders and the wounded can lead.\u00a0 The task remains to embrace tempering,<\/em> leadersmithing, and wounding. <\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Jared Price, \u201cTempered Resilience: How Leaders Are Formed in the Crucible of Change\u201d (January 29, 2021).<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Markus Watson, \u201cTempered Resilience Book Review,\u201d December 11, 2020, accessed December 3, 2022, https:\/\/www.markuswatson.com\/2020\/12\/11\/tempered-resilience-book-review\/.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Jean de Dieu Ndahiriwe, \u201cLeadership Comes Directly from God,\u201d November 18, 2022, https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/leadership-comes-directly-from-god\/.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Leah Woolner, Myriam Denov, and Sarilee Kahn, \u201c\u2018I Asked Myself If I Would Ever Love My Baby\u2019: Mothering Children Born of Genocidal Rape in Rwanda,\u201d Violence Against Women<\/em> 25, no. 6 (May 2019): 703\u2013720.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> \u201cHope | Devotional Reading Plan | YouVersion Bible,\u201d accessed December 3, 2022, https:\/\/tinyurl.com\/38wy4ren.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Henri J. M. Nouwen, The Wounded Healer: Ministry in Contemporary Society<\/em>, 1st Image ed. (New York, NY: Image Books, 02).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tod Bolsinger’s Tempered Resilience, like other themes we have seen in recent days, reveal that leadership formation is a challenging journey. “Bolsinger suggests four critical characteristics and specific practices to produce grounded resilience necessary for transformational leadership through change.”[1] As seen in other sources, these themes somehow suggest that to attain a worthwhile status of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2347,2386,2389],"class_list":["post-29794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlgp01","tag-bolsinger","tag-tod-bolsinger","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29794"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29794\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29801,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29794\/revisions\/29801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}