What are you going to do after high school?

Where will you go to college?

What career will you choose?

Where will you live?

What will your life look like?

Whether you’re a freshman or a senior, eventually people start asking questions about your future.

And those are important questions.

But there may be an even more important question to answer first:

What are you doing with the life you have right now?

It’s easy to spend high school thinking your real life is somewhere out there in the future.

After graduation.

When you get to college.

When you get a job.

When you have more freedom.

When you’re older.

But your life isn’t waiting to begin.

It’s happening right now.

And one of the most important things you can learn during high school is how to lead.

Not someday.

Not when someone gives you a title.

Not when you’re older.

Right where you are.

Because before you can lead a company, a team, a church, a family—or anyone else—you have to learn how to lead yourself.

And if you don’t learn to lead yourself, something else will.

Your friends will.

Your emotions will.

Your desire to fit in will.

Your fear will.

Your phone will.

Your appetites will.

Other people’s expectations will.

And those things can take you places you never intended to go.

So before you figure out your future, figure this out:

Learn to lead where you are.

There’s a guy in the Bible named Nehemiah who shows us what that looks like.

He didn’t begin with a position.

He began by paying attention.

1. A LEADER SEES

Nehemiah was hundreds of miles away from Jerusalem when he asked some people who had been there how things were going.

The answer wasn’t good.

“The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.”
— Nehemiah 1:3

Nehemiah wasn’t standing in Jerusalem looking at the broken walls.

He saw by listening.

He heard what was happening, and instead of thinking, That’s terrible, and moving on with his life, he let what he heard affect him.

“As soon as I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days…”
— Nehemiah 1:4

A lot of people knew Jerusalem’s walls were broken.

Nehemiah was different.

He allowed a problem to become his problem.

That’s often where leadership begins.

You can’t lead what you don’t notice.

Look around you.

Who is being left out?

Who always gets made fun of?

Who needs encouragement?

What’s unhealthy in your friend group?

What could be better on your team?

What needs to change at your school?

Who needs someone to invite them to Fuel?

And leadership isn’t only noticing what’s wrong.

A leader can look at what is and imagine what could be.

That’s vision.

Great leaders don’t lead people toward something worse. They see a better possibility and help people move toward it.

When you learn to see, you stop waiting for leadership opportunities.

You start finding them everywhere.

2. A LEADER PRAYS

When Nehemiah hears what’s happening in Jerusalem, he doesn’t immediately jump into action.

He prays.

Before Nehemiah talks to a king, organizes a team, moves a stone, or rebuilds a wall, he talks to God.

That’s important because caring about something doesn’t automatically mean you know what to do about it.

You can be passionate and wrong.

You can have good intentions and still make a mess.

You can be completely confident and headed in the wrong direction.

Prayer keeps you from confidently leading in the wrong direction.

Before you send the text, pray.

Before you confront your friend, pray.

Before you make the decision, pray.

Before you try to fix everybody else, pray.

Before asking God to change everyone around you, give Him permission to change you.

Leadership doesn’t begin with getting everyone else to listen to you.

It begins with you listening to God.

3. A LEADER KNOWS WHEN TO WAIT

There’s something easy to miss between Nehemiah chapters 1 and 2.

Months pass.

Nehemiah sees the problem.

He cares about the problem.

He prays about the problem.

But he doesn’t immediately act.

He waits.

Eventually the king notices something is wrong and asks Nehemiah what he wants.

That’s the moment.

Nehemiah tells him about Jerusalem and asks permission to go rebuild the city.

The door opens.

Leadership is knowing not only WHAT to do, but WHEN to do it.

Sometimes leadership means GO.

Sometimes leadership means WAIT.

Sometimes you need to speak.

Sometimes you need to listen.

Sometimes you act now.

Sometimes you prepare now so you’ll be ready to act later.

Waiting doesn’t always mean you’re doing nothing.

Sometimes God is developing you while you’re waiting for the right moment.

4. A LEADER GOES FIRST

Eventually Nehemiah arrives in Jerusalem, examines the walls, understands what needs to happen, and gathers the people.

He tells them:

“Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem…”
— Nehemiah 2:17

They respond:

“Let us rise up and build.”
— Nehemiah 2:18

Notice what Nehemiah doesn’t say.

“YOU need to rebuild this wall.”

He says:

“Let US build.”

That’s leadership.

Never ask someone else to do what you’re unwilling to do yourself.

Leadership isn’t pointing at something that needs to happen.

Leadership is going first.

“Somebody should invite him.”

I’ll invite him.

“Someone should stand up for her.”

I’ll stand up for her.

“Our team needs a better attitude.”

Mine changes first.

“Someone needs to stop the gossip.”

It stops with me.

“People at my school need to see what following Jesus looks like.”

They can see it in me.

People are much more likely to follow an example than an instruction.

5. A LEADER DOESN’T QUIT

Nehemiah is doing something good.

Actually, he’s doing something great.

He’s rebuilding Jerusalem.

You might think everyone would be excited about that.

They weren’t.

First came ridicule.

People mocked them:

“What are these feeble Jews doing?”
— Nehemiah 4:2

Then came opposition.

People threatened them.

Then came discouragement.

Even their own people started saying:

“The strength of those who bear the burdens is failing. There is too much rubble. By ourselves we will not be able to rebuild the wall.”
— Nehemiah 4:10

They’re exhausted.

They’re overwhelmed.

They’re wondering if they can finish.

And then comes something that might be even more dangerous:

Distraction.

Four times Nehemiah’s enemies try to get him to stop working and come meet with them.

Nehemiah answers:

“I am doing a great work and I cannot come down.”
— Nehemiah 6:3

Every leader eventually has to learn this:

Difficulty doesn’t always mean you’re going in the wrong direction.

Sometimes doing the right thing gets hard.

Sometimes people criticize you.

Sometimes people don’t understand you.

Sometimes you’ll get tired.

Sometimes you’ll fail.

Sometimes you’ll wonder whether it’s worth it.

Sometimes quitting will look a whole lot easier than continuing.

That’s when you need Nehemiah’s words.

You decided you’re going to follow Jesus?

Don’t come down.

You decided you’re not going to become whatever everybody else expects you to become?

Don’t come down.

You’re trying to influence your friends instead of letting your friends influence you?

Don’t come down.

Someone laughed when you tried to do the right thing?

Don’t come down.

You’re tired of feeling like you’re the only one trying?

Don’t come down.

You messed up and you’re wondering whether you should just give up?

Get back up.

Don’t come down.

Persistence will take you places excitement never will.

Anybody can be excited when something starts.

Leadership is still building when the excitement wears off.

SOMEONE IS GOING TO LEAD YOUR LIFE

Here’s something you need to understand while you’re still young:

If you don’t learn to lead yourself, something else will.

Your friends will lead you.

Your emotions will lead you.

Your desire to fit in will lead you.

Fear will lead you.

Popularity will lead you.

Your phone will lead you.

Your appetites will lead you.

Other people’s expectations will lead you.

And if you spend your life following whatever is pulling you the hardest at the moment, eventually you can end up somewhere you never intended to go.

That’s why learning leadership now matters.

Leadership isn’t just learning how to get other people to follow you.

Leadership begins with learning how to lead yourself as you follow Jesus.

So don’t wait until you’re a senior.

Don’t wait until college.

Don’t wait until someone puts you in charge.

Don’t wait until you’re older.

You already have somewhere to lead.

Your classroom.

Your lunch table.

Your team.

Your friend group.

Your job.

Your family.

Fuel.

You don’t need a degree.

You don’t need a title.

You don’t need a position.

And you don’t need your entire future figured out.

You just need to start where you are.

SEE what other people miss.

PRAY before you move.

WAIT for the right moment.

GO FIRST.

DON’T QUIT.

Maybe the place you’re in right now isn’t merely somewhere you’re trying to get through.

Maybe it’s somewhere God has given you to lead.

And when you’re tempted to quit, get distracted, or climb down from what God has called you to do, remember Nehemiah:

“I am doing a great work and I cannot come down.”

You don’t have to know where you’re going.

Lead where you are.