Kingdom Character: How to be Faithful to the End (Part 1 of 3)
The most difficult person that I will ever have to lead is myself.
That person is a package of impressive strengths mingled with equally great insecurities, wounds, and inconsistencies, all judiciously packaged, as best as we know how, to project the best possible public face. All the while fully aware of the concealed brokenness inside the box. And that brokenness, if not restored, will be our undoing.
We have all watched the lives of public figures unravel as their weaknesses are exhibited in real time across every media outlet that has access to a news truck. Sports figures, television personalities, movie stars, politicians, and, the most salacious of all, religious celebrities are caught on countless cameras doing the “perp walk” while futilely attempting to shield their disgraced faces. There is a beguiling yet tragic patheticness to the whole thing.
Do you suppose any of them envisioned this degrading ending in the promising, beginning days of their careers? Not likely. A finale like this would be far from the thoughts of most. Yet week by week another icon’s collapse is paraded in high definition into the sanctuary of our living rooms.
But what is more tragic and unquestionably more detrimental to the Kingdom of God than the collapse of distant celebrities is the frequency with which trusted spiritual leaders are forced to abandon their Father’s call due to a heartbreaking moral failure.
The ripples of resentment, disbelief, and skepticism radiate from this broken trust for years and, in many cases, for generations. The gift of a promising ministry ends in a jaded legacy of scorched earth.
Surely, no one starts out in ministry with this kind of ending in mind. Yet it materializes with such regularity ...
from Christianity Today Magazine https://ift.tt/30mdyKX
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