Leaders must go beyond analysis to action. One cannot lead without energy, motion, risk. Leaders are pathfinders, road makers, action takers.

Cowardice, to put it bluntly, is an ungodly trait. God is not passive in the face of evil, nor is He indecisive.

The Psalms are full of powerful lyrics that give us a clear portrait of the Lord God. Never is He portrayed as a mild-mannered, passive Deity, hoping and waiting for things to happen. Always He is aggressively engaged in an all-out war against injustice and inequity.

Righteousness and truth are causes to be fought for. If left to fend for themselves, they can't withstand the overpowering huns of heathenism.

In every generation, then, conflict is inevitable. And the ammunition for such conflicts? You guessed it. Heart.

Do you have it? Do you take courageous action in the face of wrong? Will you stand alone, if necessary, and embrace a principle, even though it means you lose votes or friends or prestige...or whatever?

Are you an intellectual analyser of wrong, a mere advocate of achievement, a person who enjoys discussions of issues to the point of getting bogged down in unproductive semantics...or do you translate ideas into action?

I have a close friend who spent a day at San Diego's SeaWorld. While he and his wife were near the main mall, they saw something unusual in the distance: a bunch of ducks coming toward them...on roller skates! They could do it, my friend said, but as they got closer, he could tell that they didn't have their hearts in it.

Some folks are ducks on roller skates; they can do what they do, but they don't have their hearts in it.

Excerpted from Day by Day with Charles Swindoll, Copyright © 2000 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. (Thomas Nelson Publishers). All rights reserved worldwide. Used by permission.