1 Kings 3:16–26 NRSV
Later, two women who were prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. The one woman said, “Please, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house; and I gave birth while she was in the house. Then on the third day after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth. We were together; there was no one else with us in the house, only the two of us were in the house. Then this woman’s son died in the night, because she lay on him. She got up in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me while your servant slept. She laid him at her breast, and laid her dead son at my breast. When I rose in the morning to nurse my son, I saw that he was dead; but when I looked at him closely in the morning, clearly it was not the son I had borne.” But the other woman said, “No, the living son is mine, and the dead son is yours.” The first said, “No, the dead son is yours, and the living son is mine.” So they argued before the king. Then the king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son that is alive, and your son is dead’; while the other says, ‘Not so! Your son is dead, and my son is the living one.’ ” So the king said, “Bring me a sword,” and they brought a sword before the king. The king said, “Divide the living boy in two; then give half to the one, and half to the other.” But the woman whose son was alive said to the king—because compassion for her son burned within her—“Please, my lord, give her the living boy; certainly do not kill him!” The other said, “It shall be neither mine nor yours; divide it.”
Neither Mine Nor Thine
In life, in business, in ministry, in everything that we do, there will be projects and systems that we create and implement. An effective leader produces results. Bottom line. People will always disagree as to what makes an effective leader, but if a general manager is seeing declining sales year after year, they will be fired. They may be the most charismatic leader the business has seen, but if that charisma does not lead to growth in numbers they will be deemed ineffective by the owners and terminated.
So what is the point that I am trying to make? The point is that leaders create. Pastors create a ministry team. A ministry team creates saints (Yes, I agree saints should create saints in practice, but soulwinning is often relegated to the ministry in practice). The question isn’t whether something is created or not. It is what happens after it is out of our hands.
In the story of the wisdom of Solomon, the false mother said, “Let it be neither mine nor thine” (1 Kings 3:26 KJV). What is our attitude when something is taken away from us? The false mother would rather see the creation destroyed than see it thrive. She would rather see harm come to it, than for it to excel. How often have you personally witnessed this in leadership? How many stories can you recall of a person who was in a leadership position, and has been asked to step aside, but only for them to make the transition intentionally difficult. The false leader wants to see harm come to their former post because they cared more for how it looked when they were over it, than how healthy it is when they are removed from it. They would rather see themselves validated as an effective leader, than be relegated to an overseer of an effective organization. The goal for the false leader is to establish an effective organization that draws its health from them. I have personally seen and experienced this in the workplace. Experienced employees are tasked with training new employees, and instead of giving them as much knowledge and wisdom as they can, they train them with the bare minimum. They view a new face as a threat to their authority and respond by becoming obtuse to their instruction.
I am purposely being vague, but I remember years ago I was working for a business and was in the process of being trained. I had little experience in the trade, and I was given a task I had no idea how to do. I was handed the bare minimum tools and was left alone to do it. Needless to say, I did a terrible job and the supervisor made the employee training me tear it out and redo it. When the trainer did it personally, he brought out all kinds of tools and equipment and had an elaborate system in place to do the job effectively. When he got done, it looked fantastic. I never understood why I had to go through that experience, it was humiliating. But in hindsight, it has shown me the exact kind of leader I do not want to be. If you call yourself a leader, and you neglect to train, mentor, and develop the person under your leadership, then you are a false leader.
Love Divine
In contrast to the false mother, the true mother would rather see her creation given to someone else and live, than for it to stay with her and die. The true mother pleaded for the life of her baby because she would rather surrender possession than sacrifice life. For example, if you are an assistant pastor of a church, and you are fired, the right thing to do is to take your licks and move on. Even if the way you were terminated was morally wrong, and you would be “justified” in pushing the issue, is it really worth the death that may come? Is it worth splitting the church so that you may be vindicated? Again, I ask, what kind of leader are you? Are you the leader who takes the best toys in the sandbox when you are gone? Or are you the leader that leaves behind his best toys so that the sandbox can bring joy to others? Do you want the sandbox to be enjoyed by everyone for years, or do you want the sandbox to be enjoyed while you are in it?
I don’t have a degree in leadership. I don’t have years of experience in ministry. I am not even sure if I am an effective leader. The only qualification that I can attach to my name is that of “Student.” But in my years of being a student, there is a pattern of destruction that the false leader leaves in his wake. It is recognizable both in the personality of the leader, and in the organizational structure he establishes. I want to be the kind of leader that can go and create systems that will allow the organization to function when I am gone. I want to be the leader who is not remembered when he is gone, but leaves behind an organization that impacts a generation.
Eternity Sublime
I am convinced that if we lived our lives in light of eternity there would be no false leaders. What is eighty years in comparison to life ever after? Are we really living with Heaven in mind if we are concerned with building our kingdom down here? Are we more concerned with people bestowing accolades on our surname, than we are with people being positively impacted by the structure we leave behind? The goal for the healthy leader is to build an effective organization that draws its health apart from them. As I bring this post to a close I will posit two important questions. First, what are we building? Second, what are we leaving behind? The false mother chose possession over life. The true mother chose life over possession. What will you choose?
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