Well the good news first, this week’s post is shorter then last weeks. Now for the bad news, this one will hit home with everyone.
This week I continue the analysis of a national sales meeting that I attend annually, and then tie the issues I see there into the body of Christ. Today we look at a little 'ol green goblin called ego. The owner of the particularly company that holds this meeting is simply never wrong. What makes it worse is when he is wrong, he does not accept it, but attacks the person that is pointing it out, proving him wrong or exposing his mistake. As soon as he is challenged, or questioned, the flaws and mistakes of the person that is challenging him become the topic of discussion, not the failings of the company or the owner.
A classic example of this is last year when he ask for questions and a dealer ask why they, the company, could not meet a certain delivery schedule that was promised. The response is that the dealer should have given the company more business. Of course my question was, and always would be, why should a dealer give the company more business when they are not delivering the orders that they have now on time, but hey that I just me. The owner however told the dealer that more orders would push the company where they would have more orders to produce. Then the owner added something about how the dealer needed to get the orders in quicker where they could get be produced earlier. Of course, he fails to mention that his company quotes the delivery from when the order arrives so if they miss the date it is because they did not make the goods in the time that they promised. By the end the dialogue, the dealer had basically been told that the missed delivery was their fault for not giving the company more business, sooner and not being a huge pusher of the product. At that point the dealer was angry, frustrated and confused, which is no way for a person to be that is suppose to believe in the product and the company.
Again, this is not going to be gripe session about the company, and it is nice that they have me come in every year, but in the end the meeting accomplishes few positive things. What I want to do is take the example of this meeting to point out something that routinely occurs in the world (to varying degrees) and then expand on it in a Christian setting. The simply fact is that none of us like to be wrong. The question though is not if we are going to be wrong, because we will be, the question is how are we going to act and react when we are.
Responsibility is a big word with big consciences. As Christians we are suppose to be responsible for what we do and when we make mistakes that means we should admit them. Of course, that is very easy to say and very hard to do. Regardless of the difficulty though, it is what we are suppose to do and since all of us fail at that sometimes, we all can improve at handling being called on our mistakes better. Everyone can get better at that, and even after a lifetime of work most of us could still probably use another lifetime to master it. The biggest problem most of us fight are the problems of ego and pride. These are two things that keep us from admitting mistakes, and makes us try to defend the indefensible at times.
Christ never had to defend Himself for being wrong, because He was never wrong. However, we can learn how to defend ourselves by looking at how He handled His detractors. When they wrongly accused Him, He defended Himself in a Godly fashion, when they attacked His divinity He defended it based on facts, but when someone did wrong He called them to change and accept responsibility. Christ was always trying to teach His disciples to have less ego, especially John and Peter. He told His followers to be about God's glory not theirs. He told them to seek God first, not things of the world. Basically the pattern is if you are wrong, accept it, take your punishment, change and go on. The key to forgiveness is that Christ tells us we are forgiven and to go and SIN NO MORE. We miss that last thing too many times. We like the forgiveness, we dislike the change. - i.e. like the benefits, hate the work.
Ego in a Christian should not be a problem, yet it is a huge problem within the body. It drives us to talk numbers over quality when it comes to members, it drives us to want more when we deserve less, it drives us to accuse and degrade where we look better, it motivates us to cut a corner and justify it via the "supposed" outcome. Usually we add to the insult by wrapping our defense or justification of the wrong in the "work of God". The problem with ego is not with the person pointing out the mistake or flaw, it is with the person that has the ego problem. We must learn to contain our ego, and thus improve our witness to the body and the world.
We are suppose to be different then the world. When we react to challenges and accusations like the world does, i.e. destroy the accuser - even if they are right, then we do nothing but damaging the witness of all Christians and making the lost view the church as nothing but hypocritical sinners. The result is much like the one that the company discussed above gets - confused people, disillusioned members, declining honor, less respect, less influence, less trust, and less reward - i.e the exact things we were trying to avoid by having a big ego to begin with.
Today, I challenge you to continue being strong and courageous, and remember that includes accepting responsibility and admitting mistakes. That also means we should do those things with grace and humility. That is a challenge for everyone in the body, including myself and you. The entire body of Christ is in this together and my ego, or yours or anyone else, can do more damage to the body then we can ever believe if we are not careful. The results can be , and will be, devastating. In a worldly sense the company discussed above loses sales, creates problems, reduces profits, and suffers a decline in industry status. In the body of Christ though we alienate people from service, and even prevent some from being open to the love of God (including His salvation). That, even if it is just one person, is bigger then anything in the world. The key to understanding all of this is that if we do not deal with the problem of ego and pride it will eventually come home to roost and when they do the consciences will be devastating.
If you can, after reading this, have a great day. I hope you know that I am not trying to be negative, overall I am a very cheerful and happy person, but in my life and career I have really seen how negative personality traits are so much more devastating then we think they are.
