Nearly 150 years ago, the missionary David Livingston was one of the most famous men on earth. He lived in a world apart from the mainstream of civilization. A mission board wrote to him asking, "Have you found a good road to where you are in Africa? If so we want to know so we can send some good men to join you." Livingston responded, "If you have only men that will come when there is a good road, I do not want them. I want men who will come if there is no road at all."

Livingston's powerful reply has been resonating in my mind ever since the recent peace-keeping trip of U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell to the Middle East. Talk about a dead-end job with no good political road maps to show the way. His April trip to Jerusalem seemed doomed to be a "non-starter" from the beginning.

Nonetheless, responding to the frustrations of an exasperated world community, Colin Powell proceeded into treacherous waters. He managed to frustrate people on both sides of this expanding debacle. What road was he traveling down? If no road, then what internal compass was at his disposal? What makes him tick? And why should we care? If we can be honest, we have our own personal Ramallah blockades and Bethlehem standoffs that seem to lack viable solutions. Yes, those scenarios in our own lives have squeezed us into desperate situations where there is no way out. What can we learn from a retired four-star general who has become an ambassador for peace?

Colin Powell's internal compass

Recently, a fascinating article entitled "Open Doors-Colin Powell's Seven Laws of Power" appeared in the January/February edition of Modern Maturity magazine. It was written by Oren Harari who has authored The Leadership Skills of Colin Powell (McGraw-Hill, 2002). Mr. Harari offers seven valuable clues to understanding the mind-set of those who strive to be problem solvers. Following are the four most significant points that allow me to better understand what might be called "the Powell way."

1."Dare to be a skunk"

Harari states that Powell feels that every organization should tolerate individuals who tell the emperor he has no clothes. Harari poignantly adds, "And this emperor [Powell] expects to be told when he is naked."

Much of this thinking comes from Powell's earlier experiences as a junior officer during the "Vietnam Conflict." Powell is quoted as saying, "We accepted that we had been sent to pursue a bankrupt policy. The top leadership never went to the Secretary of Defense or the President and said, 'This war is unwinnable the way we are fighting'-they bowed to group-think pressures and kept up pretenses."

Harari picks up the story years later when a newly appointed chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff named Colin Powell was asked his opinion on what to do with the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. The group-think notion at the time was to protect Saudi Arabia from possible invasion. It was Powell who asked the big question: "But what about pushing the Iraqis out of Kuwait?" He felt the displeasure of many on the senior staff for even suggesting that notion, but his inquiry would be the beginning step towards President George H.W. Bush's famous "line in the sand." Later Powell would comment, "I guess some people suggested that it was not the correct thing to ask, but I asked it anyway."

Author Harari reminds us that Powell was living out a pledge that he and other junior officers had forged by experience, "that someday, when they were in charge, they would not make the same mistakes." Building roads where there are none is not for the faint of heart. People, whether in governments, families, companies or congregations, will come down ever so hard to maintain the status quo of comfort-even when the outcome bears no conceivable yield. The subtle yet powerful signals of "not rocking the boat" are a pervasive insecurity that only puts off the inevitable.

Yet, those SOS ("same ol' stuff") signals that every new generation gets numbed into accepting are very strong. Nathan the prophet was willing to tell King David something he did not want to hear. "You are the man!" (2 Samuel 12:7.) Do you really think that Nathan was the only one who knew what was going on? What we surely do know is that he was willing to be "a skunk," if that's what it took to fulfill God's purpose for him.

Let's face it-any real solutions lie on the other side of the all-too-real panic that we might feel. But it is only here that any meaningful road between two distant points can begin. Everything else is simply what I call "believable make-believe."

2. "To get the real dirt-head for the trenches"

Another Powell principle is, "The people in the field are closest to the problems. Therefore, that is where the real wisdom is." He practiced this during Desert Storm by asking young men and women how they would win the war.

Harari captures the essence of Powell's "search for a road" by relating how he would engage a young captain, asking him to "'talk to me, son, tell me what you have got.' And then I would let him argue with me as if he were arguing with an equal. After all, he knew more about the subject than I did. I also knew that he would tell his friends that he had argued with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Word would spread and people would come to understand that when they came to my office I really wanted to hear what they thought."

Powell understands that we must get away from our desks and our "made-from-afar solutions" to engage those who are involved in the process. That means listening to the troops, whoever and wherever they may be. With this background in mind, is it any wonder that Powell listened to both sides of the Middle East equation? The shortest distance between two points is a straight line, but you have to be willing to touch the other point, and gain its input.

3. "Share the power"

Harari quotes Powell: "Plans don't accomplish work. It is people who get things done." Here Powell adheres to two basic premises-people are competent and every job is important. Powell feels it is his job to convey to every person, through every layer of the organization, the valuable role he performs.

The flip side of Powell's approach is that while recognition is offered from above, accountability is expected from below. This comes from his personal experience when he was promoted to lieutenant general and stationed in Germany. Powell received a letter from his superior officer stating, "If you have not heard from me offering you a second position or promoting you to four stars, I expect you to have your resignation on my desk." Harari aptly notes, "Two years later four-star general Powell was in the White House as National Security Advisor."

Before we think Powell's superior was too tough, let's consider how Jesus Christ set a marvelous example in empowering His followers and allowing them to flourish in their newfound roles. In carefully reading Luke 9:1-10, we find He didn't write a textbook manual on cooperative ventures, but He had a simple four-point plan of involving others towards a common goal. In verse 1, we note that He gives them ample power and authority to do the job. In verses 3 to 5, He gives them specific instructions about how to travel. He tells them in verse 5 how to deal with the job at hand when adversity sets in. In verse 10, just like Powell's superior in Europe, He gently lets the disciples know that He does expect results and will be waiting for an accounting. The concept of "we" is truly a remarkable tool for team building if we can only purposefully step over the stumbling block of "me."

4. "Know when to ignore your advisors"

Harari poignantly describes how Powell sees experts, advisors and consultants as getting you only so far. The final decision comes from a leader's hard-won experience. You might call it their "gut instinct" wrapped in their "heart of hearts."

Powell concludes that at times the experts possess more data than judgment. He states that elites can become so inbred that they produce hemophiliacs that bleed to death the first time they are nicked by the real world.

Again, his conclusions come from his Vietnam experience. Harari shares how "Powell asked a Vietnamese army officer, why had an outpost been put in such a vulnerable spot?" The officer explained, "Some military experts wanted it there to supply a nearby airfield." So then Powell asked, "Why was the airfield there?" The officer answered, "To resupply the outpost." Obviously, we see in this comically sad scenario that the dots simply were not connecting.

We are told that thousands of years ago, another general named Alexander the Great came up against the great Gordian knot tied by Gordius, king of Phrygia. Legend had it that the man who undid the knot would become the ruler of Asia.

Everybody had an idea, many had calculations, lots of people had opinions and more than a few had tugged, pried and pulled, but all to no avail. Alexander the Great took all the advice and pushed it aside. He simply took out his sword and sliced right through the problematic knot. Everybody had been so focused on the details of every little twist and turn of cord that they had overlooked the obvious.

Of course, the rest is history. Slicing through our problems means we must maintain a wider focus rather than be weighed down with never-ending details.

"I am the path"

Now that we understand the inner chemistry of this man, is it any wonder that the secretary of state was willing to go to the Middle East in search of some solution? Oh yes, the secretary has taken a lot of heat from around the world. The media offers headlines like "failed mission," "no peace at hand," "peace mission torpedoed," "Powell returns empty-handed," etc. It is so easy to write headlines rather than make them, whether we succeed or fail.

Nearly 2,000 years ago, a bunch of fishermen laughed at a guy who thought for a moment that he could get out of a boat and walk on water. There was no road to walk on. Only water. But for the moment, he dared to dream and he dared to believe as he willingly stepped out. One of the greatest lessons we can learn from Peter's exploit (Matthew 14:28-30) moves beyond the immediate lesson that he took his eyes off Christ and focused on the storm. At least he got out of the boat while everyone else watched. I'm sure Peter and Colin Powell would have some fun sharing notes.

There's one more story, one from Africa. A hunter who was out on expedition got lost in the jungle with nothing but bush and a few cleared spaces. He found a native's hut and asked the native if he could lead him out. The native said he could. "All right," said the hunter, "show me the way." So they walked and hacked their way through unmarked jungle for more than an hour. The hunter got worried. "Are you quite sure this is the way? Where is the path?" The native turned around and knowingly smiled, "In this place there is no path. I am the path."

It is in that phrase, "I am the path," that David Livingston would have found his kind of man. A man who wasn't simply looking for "the road less traveled," but one who dared to break new ground where no road existed.

It is in this man's reply, "I am the path," that the millennial refrain of "this is the way" found in Isaiah 30:21 comes to full life.

I think that Colin Powell might be somewhere on that same jungle trail-in-the-making. Although Bible prophecy indicates that the problems of the Mideast will not be finally resolved until Jesus Christ returns to personally intervene, I salute Secretary Powell for his courage.