“So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.” — Galatians 6:9
Galatians 6:9 is often quoted as encouragement, but it’s also a statement about leadership. Not the visible kind. Not the kind measured by platformed success or recognition. It’s the kind that shows up day after day, long after the initial excitement has passed, and keeps doing what is right even when results are slow or the way forward isn’t popular.
When leadership decisions fail, it’s typically not due to a lack of vision. They fail because of fatigue. Good ideas are disregarded. Right decisions are delayed. Informed practices are replaced with expedient ones. Not because leaders stop believing in the work, but because endurance quietly erodes under pressure.
Paul’s words remind us that the harvest is not tied to intensity but to faithfulness. The timing is not ours to control. The call is simply not to give up.
For Evangel alumni, leadership was never framed as a sprint. The liberal arts education, rooted in faith, that you received at EU taught you how to think deeply, act with integrity, and remain steady when the payoff was not immediate. You learned that preparation matters, that character is formed over time, and that meaningful impact rarely happens quickly.
That lesson applies just as clearly beyond the classroom. In business, education, healthcare, ministry, and every other field in which you serve, the most consequential leadership decisions are often made amidst conflicting priorities and when you’re nearing total exhaustion. They are made in seasons when progress feels at best incremental and the work feels demanding. This is where Galatians 6:9 speaks to us most clearly.
Endurance does not mean stubbornness. It means discernment. It means knowing what is worth sustaining, understanding when it’s time to pass the torch to the next leader, and having the resolve to push forward, even when the outcome is not yet visible. That kind of leadership creates trust. It shapes culture. It outlasts trends.
As I watch our students navigate the heart of the semester, I am reminded that leadership qualities are being formed in them right now. And as alumni, you are part of that formation. Together, we share responsibility for sustaining an institution that prepares leaders who know how to remain faithful over the long arc of their callings.
The promise remains: there is a harvest. Our task is to move towards it with diligence and discernment.
President Rakes