“It’s love with a hook. ‘If you do what we want, we reward you. If not, we punish you.’ It doesn’t turn out to be about love at all. We give our affection only to those who serve our interests and withhold it from those who do not.”
- John from “So you don’t want to go to church anymore.” – Wayne Jacobsen & Dave Coleman

Imagine an average looking man standing in the front of an average looking small hall. People come and shake his hand and pat him on the back. They smile as they do so, and they move along. As they come and go, one nods, smiles, shakes his hand, and wraps a rope around his wrist. Another comes and ties it in a knot, smiling and patting him on his back. The average looking man smiles and nods with only a small hint of concern on his face. Another comes with a chain and puts it on his ankle. As they come, you begin to notice that they are bound also. Some are roped to each other, some just dragging chains like Marley from “A Christmas Carol”. Slowly the man has these different hooks attached, and finally an old and wise looking fellow attaches a leash to one of the many different pieces hanging from this man. Now the average looking man seems surprised. In fact, he objects. Very calmly the white haired elderly man waves his hand gently with a gentle grin and motions for him to not worry about it. This is how it is supposed to be. This is how it always is. As he walks away from the front of the hall, he gives the leash a tug. It holds, he drops the end, and moves on. Soon lots of different people are tugging at the leash, this way and that way. Sometimes it pulls the average looking man. Sometimes it just goes taught and then slackens. He is now attached to another person, that person being attached to another. All cordial, patting each other on their backs. This is how it is, this is how it goes. It’s about spiritual authority. God is, after all, a God who distributes authority. Some people have it, some people don’t… you can’t have leaders without followers. So this is how it should be. This is the Church.

I imagine in the spiritual that the posturing and flexing that goes on in the Church looks more like a calf roping in a rodeo than an actual exercise of God given spiritual authority. In fact, no matter who claims the responsibility of leadership, God has made it clear how to discern those to whom God has given it. John 11:4, among other scriptures, describes God’s way of granting authority. It is demonstrated over and over in not only the life of Christ, but the life of His disciples. When the words of a human first matches their actions, and then, most importantly, creation itself bends to testify to that person’s mission. It is then hard to deny that they have authority. Authority that is more than words, fame, or fashion. It’s supernatural, and perhaps, God given, authority. Jesus demonstrated that this comes only when we do what God tells us to do. He also warned that many will come and demonstrate all these characteristics and not be from God.

I’ve got news for the self-help authors, leadership “trainers”, and any other new packages for a very old problem. You can market your wares however you’d like. You can position yourself at whatever table, in whatever spotlight, or whatever economic position available to you. You can know all the right people and be invited to Presidential palaces for tea. None of that will coerce heaven into accepting you, more less promoting you. Even the prayer of Jabez will turn up futile.

The fact of the matter is put most succinctly here:

“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.” – John 16:10

It seems obvious, but perhaps worth saying, that the type of ambition that leads to the trustworthiness described above is not the type that leads one man to lasso another and march them around like livestock. In fact it is a type of ambition that would not likely find itself in the spotlight at all. At a crucial moment God is certainly able to promote David to King, but when Saul becomes King, or even David for that matter, their character is at terrible risk. God won’t likely do that disservice to more folks than necessary. The rest of them are what we in the states call “glory hounds”. They will have very little God given authority, but the habit of humans is that their very position will appear to be proof that God put them there. I’m afraid that is not only un-biblical (consider what Satan promised Jesus in the desert) but it is thoroughly fallacious. Lucifer had the same ambitions as many of these “glory hounds” and I’m afraid the Bible is clear, they will receive a similar reward.

So beware of “glory hounds”. If you look in the mirror and see one, repent and humble yourself. Jesus said that John the Baptist was the greatest prophet born. Let’s recite his words instead of Jabez’s. In John 3:30 he says: “He must become greater, I must become less”. Lord please become greater in and through the lives of everyone who reads this, and may we all become less to serve that purpose.