It’s February, the month in which the Canada and Bermuda Territory intentionally focuses on officer recruitment. It’s also the month in which our communities celebrate matters of the heart. How fitting that we set aside this time to think about officership, and those who may be considering it, as officership is fundamentally a matter of the heart.

Officers, by nature of their covenant, are the spiritual leaders of The Salvation Army. While you’ll find them filling various roles across the territory, their primary identity is that of spiritual leader. The covenant they sign says, “CALLED BY GOD to proclaim the gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ as an officer of The Salvation Army, I BIND MYSELF TO HIM IN THIS SOLEMN COVENANT: to love and serve him supremely all my days, to live to win souls and make their salvation the first purpose of my life, to care for the poor, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, love the unloved, and befriend those who have no friends, to maintain the doctrines and principles of The Salvation Army, and, by God’s grace, to prove myself a worthy officer. Done in the strength of my Lord and Saviour.” It is a sacred calling and solemn responsibility.

While officer candidates are assessed according to various criteria, The Salvation Army seeks first Salvationist women and men with devoted, humble, obedient hearts. These three characteristics are essential to leadership resilience and mission effectiveness.

Devotion

Scripture tells us that God is deeply interested in our hearts. When the prophet Samuel was sent to Bethlehem to anoint the king God had chosen for his people, God said, “Do not consider his appearance or his height ... The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).

When God searches our hearts, he is looking at who we truly are at the core of our being. Whatever our hearts are set on determines every choice we make. When God is our ultimate longing, we learn to love everything else well. But when other things, even good things, displace him, our hearts become divided. Saint Augustine called it disordered love. Only pure hearts can truly see God (see Matthew 5:8).

Psalm 1 tells us that those who delight in the law of the Lord, meditating upon it day and night, are blessed. Meditation is the discipline that moves us beyond superficial study of scriptural truths. As we reflect upon and appropriate the lessons, working out our salvation in awe and wonder, the Word becomes transformative. Principles become reality. The Word becomes flesh within us.

Devotion signals an undivided heart, a heart that is ready to “become a carrier of his glory, destined to experience his presence in new and unprecedented ways,” as Brian Simmons writes in the devotional book I Hear His Whisper.

Humility

The discipline of meditation not only transforms our awareness of God, but it also reforms a distorted view of ourselves. As God increases, “self” decreases and we bow before him. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught that God’s kingdom belongs to the poor in spirit, those with a posture of humility (see Matthew 5:3). Theologian Thomas à Kempis wrote: “Choose evermore rather to have less than more. Seek ever the lower place and to be under all. Desire ever to pray that the will of God be all and wholly done.”

In Humility: The Journey Toward Holiness, Andrew Murray wrote: “We must seek a humility which will rest in nothing less than the end and death of self; which gives up all the honour of men as Jesus did, to seek the honour that comes from God alone; which absolutely makes and counts itself nothing so that God may be all, that the Lord alone may be exalted. Until we seek humility in Christ above our chief joy, and welcome it at any price, there is very little hope of a religion that will conquer the world. Study the humility of Jesus. This is the secret, the hidden root of your redemption.”

Author and artist Bette Dickinson says, “When we approach him with humility, we are available for him to do something miraculous in and through us.”

Obedience

Closely connected to devotion and humility is obedience. This is illustrated beautifully in the life of Mary, the mother of Jesus, in her response to the angel, Gabriel: “I am the Lord’s servant. May your word to me be fulfilled” (Luke 1:38).

Lest we think this is merely the blind faith of a naive girl, reflect for a moment upon the implications of this calling. Although young in years, she would be keenly aware of the consequences of her pregnancy. Timed to occur before her marriage, it would condemn and ostracize her completely from her betrothed, her family and her community.

The story sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Abram was called to leave his family and country. Noah was ridiculed for years as he built the ark. Moses left the comforts of a palace to lead God’s people on a 40-year journey through the desert.

“The call on Mary’s life is an impossible demand. The call of God always is. To become obedient to his call always means becoming a slave to the impossible,” writes Michael Card in Luke: The Gospel of Amazement.

How is one so young able to humbly and willingly respond to such an impossible request? It is only possible when you know and fully trust the One who asks.

Mary cannot understand all that has been shared and she most certainly would have fears of what lay ahead, but she knows and deeply trusts the God who has called her. Her devoted heart and humble spirit choose to lean into his promises rather than her fears.

In Mary, we find a beautiful example of a true follower of Christ:

• one who daily drinks from the springs of his Word, allowing its truths to penetrate and transform her;
• one who is able to accept what remains unknown because she trusts in the unfailing love of God in spite of her circumstances;
• one whose love and devotion deepen as the journey unfolds, swelling her spirit with songs of praise.

As we move through the month of February, may we be for others a reflection of devotion, humility and obedience. May we offer an unhurried presence attuned to the ways that God is at work around us. May we welcome any disruptions with joyful obedience as he calls us to partner with him in his transforming mission in our families and communities.

Lt-Colonel Roxanne Jennings is the secretary for personnel.

Photo: @One & All