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Jeff Caliguire is a Cornell University and Dallas Seminary-educated entrepreneur who wrote Leadership Secrets of Saint Paul (Cook, 2003) after learning many of them the hard way. "I simmered over things that weren't going my way," he says. "I painted worst-case scenarios. My depression affected my marriage, my health, and my children." Ultimately, he says, like the apostle, we must begin to see ourselves as servants if we expect to be truly effective over the long haul.

A number of years ago, my brother Todd discovered a greenish, toxic rust flowing underground from an auto junkyard, making its way into a stream, then flowing through our backyard on its way to a lake. It quickly became apparent that residue from this ancient metal was polluting our water supply and possibly affecting our health.

A town commission approved the obvious solution: remove the source of this hazardous waste by digging up the decomposing cars. Sooner was better than later.

Like this buried waste, unresolved tensions make their way to the surface in our lives and affect our leadership. Resentment is defined by Webster's Dictionary as "a sense of injury or anger arising from a sense of wrong." Resentments take the breath out of our work and can actually dull our vision. They zap our energy and steal the enjoyment of working with others. They build up over time and rarely dissipate on their own.

Adapted from Leadership Secrets of Saint Paul (River Oak, 2003) by permission.

Copyright © 2006 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

I need Your power, Lord, to root out resentments and replace them with trust in how You are shaping my circumstances.

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