Rule Well

Sometimes politicians fail to see how their personal lives, past and present, might actually damage the very cause they are advocating. "If you are to be a responsible speaker, you cannot escape assessing the ethical soundness of your goals." (p 32 Lucas 2009) Clearly then, one's actions cannot be isolated from one's speech. When we enter the public arena, any skeletons in our closet are fair game for the opposition's case against us. Unfortunately, in politics, it has become accepted by common consensus that winning and the power that comes along with winning is the only important thing. The crooked among us must let our conscience be our guide. However, our conscience must coincide with the public's conscience, that of those whose trust and support we have solicited in the election. Who are we really, and, is our word our bond? This does come up often even in church leadership and lay-ministry. In churches, what qualifies or disqualifies a person for ministry if not the integrity of the "upper management?" And so, in the church setting, leaders take on the responsibility not only for their own integrity, but also the integrity of those who serve under them. The level of accountability, in theory and in Scripture, is much higher in the church. When politicians face the exposure of wrong doing in their cabinet, they merely say, "I had no knowledge of this or that " When you completely separate church and state, you end up with leaders like Adolf Hitler, Idi Amin, and Fidel Castro who will murder, rape, and pillage in order to maintain what power they possess over others. There is no better guide to peace and righteousness than the Holy Spirit bearing witness to the correctness of our heart and actions, though Proverbs, in particular, says much about the importance of godly counsel. "Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counselors they are established" (Proverbs 15:22). Considering the sin of pride and the fallibility of the limited finite human mind, we do well to think of safety in numbers with regard to issues of public administration and legislation. Fortunately our American founding fathers thought so as well which is why we have a system of checks and balances in our government. The fact that I trust you does not mean I will not check your work and hold you accountable. If that were the case, we would not even need leadership. Correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding of the second law of thermodynamics is that anything, your home for example, unmaintained and left to itself, will continue in entropy. Entropy is a measurement of the disorder of a system, a measurement of the unavailability of a system’s energy to do work. Leaders are administrative engineers who constantly assess and manage the available energy at their disposal to achieve specific goals. We need all to be such leaders, even if we only lead ourselves. Left unchecked, we sure can be a mess... I am my brother's keeper, if we are both to succeed. I have to be more concerned with ours than yours or mine. I'm drifting off point here so I'll close. I am praying that God give me a Barnabas type of spirit and ministry, where my first response is always one of encouragement. We are more fragile than society will allow us to admit and we are literally killing each other and hurting each other daily with these pink tornadoes in our mouths. I promised to close so I'll just end here.