I am turning into a King/warrior buff--blame it on the years of football. Anyway, I love the stuff. I know, I know, ...it is so passé. So, I guess I am a caveman regarding some of my ideal's. Nevertheless, in my journey to find what makes the alpha male warrior tick, I came across this book entitled "Gates of Fire." It falls in the genre of Historical Fiction; it was written by Steven Pressfield. The book focuses on the battle of Thermopylae, which is the same story Frank Miller depicted in his graphic novel 300. But, unlike 300 the Gates of Fire goes into greater detail explaining what motivates Spartans. Also, Pressfield was more intentional in humanizing the players in the conflict than Miller was. Pressfield even authenticates the Persians. The author did such a good job in humanizing all the characters he was able to articulate a truth about leadership that is rarely talked about using the main antagonist of the story, King Xerxes. The character Xerxes is able to communicate the very fear that topples, in my opinion, many great leaders. The inability of a leader to trust the motivations of his followers. In this brief passage I am about to quote Xerxes, husband of Queen Ester, who is the King of Persia--one of the largest and greatest empires in the History of mankind, crystallizes the fear of mistrust many leaders experience. In explaining to his most "trusted" advisers why he would devise a strategy for his next military move based upon a captured Spartan's testimony rather than heading their counsel, he states the profound:
"Consider:whom can a king trust who comes into His hearing? What man enters before Him but with some secret desire, passion, grievance or claim, which he employs all his artifice and guile to conceal? Who speaks the truth before a king? A man addresses Him either in fear for that which He may seize or in avarice for that which He may bestow. None comes before Him but as a suppliant. His heart's business the flatterer speaks not aloud, but all he obscures beneath the cloak of dissemblance and dissimulation.
Each voice vowing allegiance, each heart declaring love, the Royal Lister must probe and examine and if He were a vendor in a bazaar, seeking the subtle indices of betrayal and deceit. How tiresome this becomes. A king's own wives whisper sweetly to Him in the darkness of the royal bedchamber. Do they love Him? How can He know, when He perceives their true passion spent in scheming and intriguing for their children's advantage or their own private gain. None speaks the whole to a king, not His own brother, not even you, my friend and kinsman."
The point: if you are a leader trust no one!
Powerful truth and in a world full of sin where you have to hold on to every thing you get with all your might here, here!!! But, because of Jesus we don't have to walk in fear we can walk in faith.
Why...
1. It is Christ who they are following not you.."...and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me..." (Galatians 2:20b)
2. You are called to give and serve not to get and hoard That's not the way it should be among you. Instead, whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant,(Matthew 20:26)
3. Because you are not your own...you were bought at a price. (1 Corinthians 6:20a)
The point: you are Christ's so that men can use you...that is the point...Leaders who walk in fear are not trusting God nor do they understand their purpose! What are the motivations of the people who follow you? Who cares...Ask yourself this! What is your motivation for following Christ!
