It has been said that Absalom had it all. A rich, powerful, and spiritual family heritage. Physically, he was probably a handsome man with a good amount of educated intelligence. By some he may even have been in line for the throne. God had promised his father David a long line of rule for his descendants. What great potential he had and probably alot of people watching him as he grew up and seemed to follow in his dad's footsteps.
But, Absalom just could not wait. He knew he had influence on people already. Maybe that boosted his esteem, or fed his desire for power. Maybe he just was tired of being taken for granted or unappreciated for his talents. Whatever the motivation, he was now on a path of usurping his father's authority in subtle an not so subtle ways.
Sowing discord, or doubt in the loyalty toward leadership is the most common of methods of division. I have been the "Second man" for over 22 years under 3 different pastors. Plus I have had more bosses in more jobs than I can remember. There is one common threat to all these leaders and that is ease of distrust, disunity, and discouragement just by a few reckless, or destructive words. I wonder how many church splits could have been averted or at least minimized if the assistant stood with the pastor instead of standing with preference. The workplace believer, just as the assistant pastor must be on guard not to say or agree with statements like: If I were leader I would..., the leader is okay, but...., nobody listens to me... etc.
Sometimes we walk a fine line. I once coined a saying "an assistant pastor (or workplace believer) should not be a yes person, but he/she should be accused of it once in a while." We should never sacrifice principle for unity, but we should never sacrifice unity for pride.
No comments:
Post a Comment