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My blog this week will be very short. Over the past couple of months I have posted a lot about Pride and the different ways that it can impact leaders. Something happened this week that really impacted my perception of how Pride and time interact.
Very dear friends of mine lost one of their children this week. My prayers and heart go out to them, and I know that the one thing that they would give ANYTHING for, is more time with their son.
The impact of that thought has caused me to pause this week and think how much of my time, when I am not at work, is spent on selfish things vs humble things.....
Earlier this month the blogs suggested that the best way to prove that pride is not in the driver's seat is to focus on others and not on yourself. The best metric that will judge your performance against this is how you spend your time.
So as a leader and a person, I challenge you to look at how you spend your TIME. You can make almost anything, except time, so how you spend it is a direct reflection of where your priorities lie. Think about it, you always find time to get done what you determine is a priority.
So here is a little bit of homework: Look at your calendar, evaluate how you have spent your time over the last week. How are you spending your free time? Your work time? Can you do a better job of including others in how you spend your time.....Are you including the right people?
Never forget that nothing is guaranteed. So taking for granted that you can "make it up" to someone is pure folly. The Lord is in control, on his timing. The only thing that we can do is to impact the world, and our loved ones, at every opportunity that we have..... starting now.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Friday, March 16, 2012
Saul: Punishment for Pride
Over the last couple of blogs I have focused on the impact of Pride on leadership. I am a member of a men's Bible study and we decided that it might be helpful to look at examples of leaders in the Bible who dealt with pride, and what the impact was on their legacy.
The leader that I would like to study this week is Saul. Saul was the first "king" of the chosen people. The Lord had used Judges to lead his people up to this point. Until now, God had taken an active role in the leadership of his people. He had been present as the one who lead them out of Egypt. The people had seen the results of his interactions with Moses. They also experienced his help in helping Joshua fight the Battle of Jericho. The Lord worked through his judges, but was always the leader of his people.
Pride played a role in Saul's reign even before he was anointed. The pride of the people of Israel took over when they rejected Samuel's leadership, and the active hand that God was playing in their success. Then they requested that a human king be placed in order to lead the nation. The people chose Saul based upon his looks and his stature as a strong warrior.
The way in which Saul was anointed may not have been ideal, but given the situation, Saul had an opportunity to set a strong precedent as the leader of the nation of Israel. Things began well with Saul leading the Israelites against the Ammonites. He let God work through him and was able to defeat the Ammonites Army. After the victory, even those who opposed Saul became loyal.
The first sign of trouble came when the Israelites had to fight the Philistines at Gilgal. Saul was at Gilgal with his troops, who were very scared to fight the Philistines. They stayed there for 7 days, waiting for Samuel to come to raise an offering to the Lord. When Samuel did not arrive within the 7 days, Saul's men began to scatter. Saul decided to take matters into his own hands and do the sacrifice himself. This was the turning point in Saul's legacy. Saul did not have the patience to wait for Samuel, and in not doing so, disobeyed an order from God. This impatience was a result of pride.
Patience and pride may not seem like they are related, but Saul had been given rules to follow by God, and his decision to work on his own schedule, and take matters into his own hands, is an example of how he put his goals and decisions above Samuel and God's. When Samuel found out, he rebuked Saul. He informed him that the Lord would not let his rule endure, and that another king "after the Lord's heart".
The lesson that can be taken from this example is that pride can present itself in many ways. Depending on the situation, it can only take one event of selfish pride to drastically change the course of your life.
The second example of Pride exhibited by Saul (1 Samuel 15:1-20) resulted in the Lord rejecting him as king. This was another example where Saul put his own decisions over those of God. God gave Saul direction to attack the Amalekites and to not spare anything. Saul and his army did attack the Amalkites, but Saul chose to spare the king and the best of the cattle and sheep. To make matters worse, he erected a monument in his own honor at Carmel.
Pride presented itself in this situation by allowing Saul to think that his judgement was better than God's. By deciding what would survive or be destroyed, Saul was placing himself as all powerful in this situation, and not God. Pride also presented itself as vanity, when Saul built the monument to himself. He was giving himself credit for the victory that the Lord had provided. This was the second time that Saul had disobeyed the Lord's orders, and God rejected him as king.
The final example of pride that I want to review concerning Saul takes place in 1 Samuel 18:5-9. David returned from battle and Saul overheard women singing, "Saul has slain his thousand, and David his tens of thousands." This enraged Saul that David was getting credit for more success in battle than him.
Pride presented itself in this situation through jealousy. By getting angry about the song that the ladies were singing, Saul was saying that he believed he was better than David and should be getting more credit. Jealousy is a dangerous form of pride because it can cause the offender to take action against someone else in order to make themselves feel better. This jealousy that Saul felt would be the final straw that ended up driving him mad.
As the story plays out, Saul spends the remaining time as king letting this jealous rage drive his actions. He spent the rest of his time trying to hunt David down to kill him.
I think the tragic story of the reign of Saul is a fantastic example of how pride, presenting in four different way, ruined his legacy. The lesson to take away is that pride is the grandfather of many sins, all of which lead to death....Impatience, self-importance, disobedience, and jealousy. Any one of these behaviors can derail a career, or a life. So we need to learn from Saul and closely monitor the motivations and feeling that we have before we take action.....the results could mean the difference between life and death.
The leader that I would like to study this week is Saul. Saul was the first "king" of the chosen people. The Lord had used Judges to lead his people up to this point. Until now, God had taken an active role in the leadership of his people. He had been present as the one who lead them out of Egypt. The people had seen the results of his interactions with Moses. They also experienced his help in helping Joshua fight the Battle of Jericho. The Lord worked through his judges, but was always the leader of his people.
Pride played a role in Saul's reign even before he was anointed. The pride of the people of Israel took over when they rejected Samuel's leadership, and the active hand that God was playing in their success. Then they requested that a human king be placed in order to lead the nation. The people chose Saul based upon his looks and his stature as a strong warrior.
The way in which Saul was anointed may not have been ideal, but given the situation, Saul had an opportunity to set a strong precedent as the leader of the nation of Israel. Things began well with Saul leading the Israelites against the Ammonites. He let God work through him and was able to defeat the Ammonites Army. After the victory, even those who opposed Saul became loyal.
The first sign of trouble came when the Israelites had to fight the Philistines at Gilgal. Saul was at Gilgal with his troops, who were very scared to fight the Philistines. They stayed there for 7 days, waiting for Samuel to come to raise an offering to the Lord. When Samuel did not arrive within the 7 days, Saul's men began to scatter. Saul decided to take matters into his own hands and do the sacrifice himself. This was the turning point in Saul's legacy. Saul did not have the patience to wait for Samuel, and in not doing so, disobeyed an order from God. This impatience was a result of pride.
Patience and pride may not seem like they are related, but Saul had been given rules to follow by God, and his decision to work on his own schedule, and take matters into his own hands, is an example of how he put his goals and decisions above Samuel and God's. When Samuel found out, he rebuked Saul. He informed him that the Lord would not let his rule endure, and that another king "after the Lord's heart".
The lesson that can be taken from this example is that pride can present itself in many ways. Depending on the situation, it can only take one event of selfish pride to drastically change the course of your life.
The second example of Pride exhibited by Saul (1 Samuel 15:1-20) resulted in the Lord rejecting him as king. This was another example where Saul put his own decisions over those of God. God gave Saul direction to attack the Amalekites and to not spare anything. Saul and his army did attack the Amalkites, but Saul chose to spare the king and the best of the cattle and sheep. To make matters worse, he erected a monument in his own honor at Carmel.
Pride presented itself in this situation by allowing Saul to think that his judgement was better than God's. By deciding what would survive or be destroyed, Saul was placing himself as all powerful in this situation, and not God. Pride also presented itself as vanity, when Saul built the monument to himself. He was giving himself credit for the victory that the Lord had provided. This was the second time that Saul had disobeyed the Lord's orders, and God rejected him as king.
The final example of pride that I want to review concerning Saul takes place in 1 Samuel 18:5-9. David returned from battle and Saul overheard women singing, "Saul has slain his thousand, and David his tens of thousands." This enraged Saul that David was getting credit for more success in battle than him.
Pride presented itself in this situation through jealousy. By getting angry about the song that the ladies were singing, Saul was saying that he believed he was better than David and should be getting more credit. Jealousy is a dangerous form of pride because it can cause the offender to take action against someone else in order to make themselves feel better. This jealousy that Saul felt would be the final straw that ended up driving him mad.
As the story plays out, Saul spends the remaining time as king letting this jealous rage drive his actions. He spent the rest of his time trying to hunt David down to kill him.
I think the tragic story of the reign of Saul is a fantastic example of how pride, presenting in four different way, ruined his legacy. The lesson to take away is that pride is the grandfather of many sins, all of which lead to death....Impatience, self-importance, disobedience, and jealousy. Any one of these behaviors can derail a career, or a life. So we need to learn from Saul and closely monitor the motivations and feeling that we have before we take action.....the results could mean the difference between life and death.
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