Who Are You Listening To?
We live in a world where leaders are constantly bombarded with messages that make big promises or guarantees. All kinds of people and organizations are clamoring to get your attention. If you sit back and analyze some or all of the clamoring, I bet you’d agree that it comes from people and organizations that want something from you rather than are willing to give you something. Am I right? The secular world is placing a tremendous amount of pressure on organizational leaders of all types to follow their leadership methods and to turn their backs on God’s methods.
As leaders committed to following a Biblical worldview and Biblical principles, we have to be careful who we are listening to for information on how to do this leadership thing better. We have to be careful where we are seeking advice to handle life’s difficult problems. We are running the great risk of relying on the “wisdom” of the secular world instead of God’s wisdom. We can easily be led astray even by well-intentioned individuals, consultants, bosses, or other advisors who we turn to in time of need.
Consider just a few verses from Scripture:
Psalm 1 talks about man being blessed if he follows the law of the Lord and walks in the counsel of the godly. The wicked, or those who don’t follow the law of the Lord, are like chaff that the wind blows away!
Proverbs 1:7 says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction” (or discipline, depending on the translation used).
Proverbs 2 is clear about the requirement God places on us to consider carefully the sources from whom we obtain our wisdom; it spells out the consequences we will face if we fail to follow His wisdom. Consider verses 12-15:
“Discretion will protect you and understanding will guard you. Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse, who leave the straight path to walk in dark ways, who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil, whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.”
Does the description of wicked, evil, devious, perverse words remind you of the secular or worldly messages we are receiving today? You might think that I am being too harsh or exaggerating. Yet think of the messages that focus on self, on short-term gain, on the ease of doing this or that technique, etc. If they are not godly messages, God calls them evil, devious and wicked.
It seems to me that God is pretty clear about who He expects us to listen to and what He calls us if we listen to people who are not connected with Him and His purposes; He call them fools! So, who are you listening to for your advice on being a leader, running a company, being a parent, or just being a friend to someone? Are you listening to God and godly people, or to fools? Apparently, those are our only two choices.
Share with us what you do or would like to do to ensure you are listening to the right choice.
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By Mike Trotter, February 14, 2010 @ 8:32 am
Bill
This is great. For teh past 10 years I hav ebeen trying to get people to understand that leadership is not about what you know,it is about what you can learn as you lead. It is an active process thata person is in the middle of as they seek to create a successful situation out of the experience. As we have seen, greed and short term result coming as a direct outcome from greed are what has stiffled our economy. We will probably never gain enough momentum to change teh direction, however, we can never stop trying. Thank You.
By billbliss, February 15, 2010 @ 4:18 pm
Thanks for the comment Mike. I agree that this is an active process. Once a leader thinks s/he has learned it all, they have given up the right to be a leader, in my opinion.
Bill