Judges 3-5 Man's Ego...Big, Fragile

March 19th, Judges 3-5

       When getting the job done is more important than our personal ego, great things can happen. God makes his choice of who would lead his people for this season of history and it's Deborah who gets called into service to be the judge for Israel. A woman in charge of Israel? Yup...deal with it guys!! It sounds like Deborah knows the situation she's in as well...

       Judges 4:9 "I will surely go with you.(speaking to Barak). Nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman."

       I've done a lot of coaching. Coaching is an ego driven pursuit. "My idea led us to victory." Not only is our staff smarter than their staff, but I'm the smartest coach on this staff, my ways work, no need to listen to you! I was on a staff where ego was bigger than the common good. How that played itself out is one person exerted their authority and on the side, coaches would grab their players and say "here's what they want to do, but here's what I think you should do." Conflict, confusion, ego and in the end... failure.
        The redemptive part of this story was a new outlook. A staff that recognized the problem and decided being together supporting someone else's idea, letting go of our ego in having the right solution.  Half-time of a game was about coming up with a list of solution's. Decide which one we try first, if it doesn't work move on to the next best option etc...  The mark we get to put next to our name is a mark for Win/Loss not a "my great idea" tally. Individual ego was thrown out for a team minded approach to helping these young people have the best chance to succeed because we checked our ego at the door.
        It's sounds like Deborah knew something about the nature of men. If your only reason for going down this road is for your own glory my friend, it ain't gonna happen. How much do we do to fuel our ego? How many of the good things we do are there to validate ourselves in the eyes of ourselves or others? How willing are we to support others who are attempting to lead and give them our full support? How many times do we create confusion by saying to others, "Here's how I would do it?" Are we willing to let a woman get the job done ahead of us? Fill in the woman with a whole host of others backgrounds, races, etc...  We all have to check our ego and pursue God's way and success at advancing the Kingdom of God however he chooses. Thanks Deborah for being a hero of faith!!