Gordon MacDonald "Out of Ur"

While thinking about certain recent events that have figured prominently in the media over the last several days, I came across Gordon MacDonald's reflections in one of the blogs I sometimes read called, Out of Ur. His musings are seasoned with evident grace and compassion for our brother in leadership whose sins have been so widely disseminated, along with his wife, their children, and their church family. He also explores several much larger issues that each of us as leaders need to come to terms with. Here are a couple of thought-provoking excerpts:

It seems to me that when people become leaders of outsized organizations and movements, when they become famous and their opinions are constantly sought by the media, we ought to begin to become cautious. The very drive that propels some leaders toward extraordinary levels of achievement is a drive that often keeps expanding even after reasonable goals and objectives have been achieved. Like a river that breaks its levy, that drive often strays into areas of excitement and risk that can be dangerous and destructive. Sometimes the drive appears to be unstoppable. This seems to have been the experience of the Older Testament David and his wandering eyes, Uzziah in his boredom, and Solomon with his insatiable hunger for wealth, wives and horses. They seem to have been questing—addictively?—for more thrills or trying to meet deeper personal needs, and the normal ways that satisfy most people became inadequate for them.

No amount of accountability seems to be adequate to contain a person living with such inner conflict. Neither can it contain a person who needs continuous adrenalin highs to trump the highs of yesterday. Maybe this is one of the geniuses of Jesus: he knew when to stop, how to refuse the cocktail of privilege, fame and applause that distorts one’s ability to think wisely and to master self.

I find that to be a very interesting observation! While growing up in a pastor's home and then travelling widely across the U.S.A. and abroad, I have often been struck by the fact that some of the most gifted spiritual leaders I have met have also been among the most driven personalities I have ever encountered. Some of them have an approach to ministry that seems to bear incredible fruit, but at a physical, emotional, relational, and organizational cost that bears no resemblance to the promise Jesus made to all who would undertake His work in His way, "My yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Anyone who comes to grip with the reality of Christ's sacrifice for each one of us understands what fuels the kind of godly passion the earliest Moravian missionaries articulated as a desire to "win a reward for the Lamb worthy his name...", and yet, we all do well to remember that the Apostle Paul declared part of the evidence of true spirituality to be genuine "joy" and "peace." I don't claim to always walk in that dual reality, but I am completely convinced it is the plan of God for all of our lives!

In an even more sobering vein, MacDonald goes on to write,

... all sin begins with lies told to oneself. The cardinal lies of a failed leader? I give and give and give in this position; I deserve special privileges—perhaps even the privilege of living above the rules. Or, I have enough charm and enough smooth words that I can talk anything (even my innocence) into reality. Or, so much of my life is lived above the line of holiness that I can be excused this one little faux pas. Or, I have done so much for these people; now it’s their time to do something for me—like forgiving me and giving a second chance.

Yesterday, I brought a message to our people from my ongoing series on the Gospel of Luke entitled, "How to Deal With the Devil in Your Desert", dealing with Christ's temptation in the wilderness. While studying the fourth chapter again, I was struck by the way Satan so clearly tried to provoke Jesus into presuming upon the mercies of God, urging Him to cast Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple and take it for granted that His Heavenly Father would keep Him from experiencing the consequences of His choice.

In the same way, the enemy tries to seduce each one of us into sinning again in some area of our lives where we have experienced God's gracious forgiveness in the past. Our adversary points to the fact that God mercifully chose to not expose our misdeed, reminding us that we did not reap its deserved consequences, then insinuates, "Go ahead and sin - God will respond the same way the next time that He did the last time!" To believe that lie is to fall prey to one of the devil's oldest strategies!

As we continue to intercede for our brother whose sin has been publically exposed, let each one of us also cry out to God, asking Him to do what the biblical author prayed in Psalms 19:13,

Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. (Psalms 19:13 KJV)