The Unfair Weight of Leadership Decisions

We often overlook a truth until it affects us. It is that our decisions carry weight. When wise choices are made, stability is always the result. However, with careless decisions, things turn upside down, and the consequences may take years to undo.

Whether in life, in families, in communities, or even in nations, our choices today can become the burden others may carry tomorrow, and this is why it hurts deeply when ordinary citizens who didn’t know what had happened before find themselves being affected by the choices they never made.

Don't you think it is unfair for citizens of a country to suffer for the decisions of their leaders? For instance, when one nation attacks another, you see ordinary people, including celebrities, who are going about their daily activities, being held responsible for actions beyond their control.

Honestly, it is not fair at all, but there’s something we don’t know about leadership and how important it is with people who are suited for the role and their responsibilities to the nation.

I believe that before making someone a leader and giving them authority, a process is usually in place. A group of people are involved in choosing, endorsing, and supporting the leadership. This means that every decision would have been made, which becomes the foundation of what the outcome will be tomorrow.

The policy has been in effect even longer before a nation ever enters a crisis. And when these people fail to make wise decisions from the onset, the consequences appear later when we least expect them.

Sadly, those consequences do not affect the leaders and those who conspired together in the beginning but spill over into the lives of innocent, everyday people who want to live their lives in peace without any problems whatsoever.

Apart from the decisions made during the election of a leader to the throne, there is another layer to this process, which is counsel. For every leader, there are voices surrounding them. They are the advisers, elders, and close allies in power, among others.

When these individuals fail to speak up when they ought to or when they choose to remain silent because they are afraid things might escalate for them due to personal gain, the citizens eventually pay the price of their actions.

This made me remember the story in the Bible about Rehoboam (Solomon’s son), who inherited great influence, and the nation was peaceful at first until everything changed. The citizens came to ask him to ease the heavy burdens his father had imposed on them, but he was at a crossroads, not knowing what to do.

He followed the advice of the elders, who gave him good counsel through compassion and humility; however, he disregarded it and chose that of his friends. It turned awful. The nation was divided, and the people suffered. The consequences were felt by citizens who had no hand in the king’s foolish choice.

This is the painful truth we face today. When there are leadership mistakes, the leader would hardly be affected, but the ordinary people who only want to live, support their families, build their dreams, and live without fear.

It doesn’t make sense for citizens to face backlash, discrimination, and hostility for decisions they never participated in, and yes, it’s not fair. Every citizen is an individual who wants to make life better for themselves and not an extension of their government’s errors.

But when it has happened, I believe the best they can do is advocate, vote, pray (very important), and hope that things return to normal because one thing is certain: these ordinary citizens cannot control the hearts of those in power; only God can (Proverbs 21:1).

Good governance begins with wise decisions, godly counsel, and having leaders who truly understand the weight of responsibility, not those who want to be there for personal gain. How is this done? That’s why I said prayer is important, because it is in the place of prayer that the hearts of people are revealed.

Finally, citizens must be recognised as such and not as architects of political decisions, but as those who are most vulnerable to the consequences later on.

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_{Image Credit to Gemini}