It's Complicated(S1) : WK 5 - MON
Psalm 131
Lord, my heart is not proud;
my eyes are not haughty.
I don’t concern myself with matters too great
or too awesome for me to grasp.
2 Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself,
like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother’s milk.
Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me.
3 O Israel, put your hope in the Lord—
now and always.
1 Samuel 18:5 Whatever Saul asked David to do, David did it successfully. So Saul made him a commander over the men of war, an appointment that was welcomed by the people and Saul’s officers alike.
6 When the victorious Israelite army was returning home after David had killed the Philistine, women from all the towns of Israel came out to meet King Saul. They sang and danced for joy with tambourines and cymbals. 7 This was their song:
“Saul has killed his thousands,
and David his ten thousands!”
8 This made Saul very angry. “What’s this?” he said. “They credit David with ten thousands and me with only thousands. Next they’ll be making him their king!” 9 So from that time on Saul kept a jealous eye on David.
I used to work at a church where I was an associate pastor. I was just getting my feet wet when it came to preaching each week, and I was still learning, needing mentoring, and was not great at it, if I am honest. But every now and again I would be given the opportunity to preach in the “big house,” otherwise known as the sanctuary. I didn’t really like preaching there, it wasn’t really my vibe. I had to dress up too much, I had to try and be comfortable speaking after 50 minutes of preliminaries, and I never felt comfortable there.
One time, I preached a pretty good sermon. That is not totally unheard of, even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and again! But one older gentleman came up to me after the sermon and said, “our senior pastor better watch out, you are coming up on him quickly. . .”
To be clear, I would never have wanted the seniors’ job. I wasn’t gunning for it, and I didn’t have aspirations at that point in my career; I was just happy I got through the day and didn’t fall or throw up!
However, I am pretty sure that my Sr. Pastor did hear the comment, and it made him a bit uncomfortable. This was a shame, as our working relationship was pretty good at that point. I don’t know if that changed his attitude about me or if something else might have happened, but I saw our relationship change for the next few years. Perhaps this was a catalyst, who knows? Regardless, jealousy and fear is a real thing in the workplace.
And can you imagine that coming from a king? That had to begin to make the relationship between him and David ultimately more complicated. The text seems to indicate that it was more complicated because of this.
Have you ever had a relationship like this with someone you worked with? How difficult was it in the long run? Do you think things could have been better if people had just minded their own business? There are times when people exacerbate a situation and make it much worse than it needs to be.
Lord, my heart is not proud;
my eyes are not haughty.
I don’t concern myself with matters too great
or too awesome for me to grasp.
2 Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself,
like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother’s milk.
Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me.
3 O Israel, put your hope in the Lord—
now and always.
1 Samuel 18:5 Whatever Saul asked David to do, David did it successfully. So Saul made him a commander over the men of war, an appointment that was welcomed by the people and Saul’s officers alike.
6 When the victorious Israelite army was returning home after David had killed the Philistine, women from all the towns of Israel came out to meet King Saul. They sang and danced for joy with tambourines and cymbals. 7 This was their song:
“Saul has killed his thousands,
and David his ten thousands!”
8 This made Saul very angry. “What’s this?” he said. “They credit David with ten thousands and me with only thousands. Next they’ll be making him their king!” 9 So from that time on Saul kept a jealous eye on David.
I used to work at a church where I was an associate pastor. I was just getting my feet wet when it came to preaching each week, and I was still learning, needing mentoring, and was not great at it, if I am honest. But every now and again I would be given the opportunity to preach in the “big house,” otherwise known as the sanctuary. I didn’t really like preaching there, it wasn’t really my vibe. I had to dress up too much, I had to try and be comfortable speaking after 50 minutes of preliminaries, and I never felt comfortable there.
One time, I preached a pretty good sermon. That is not totally unheard of, even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and again! But one older gentleman came up to me after the sermon and said, “our senior pastor better watch out, you are coming up on him quickly. . .”
To be clear, I would never have wanted the seniors’ job. I wasn’t gunning for it, and I didn’t have aspirations at that point in my career; I was just happy I got through the day and didn’t fall or throw up!
However, I am pretty sure that my Sr. Pastor did hear the comment, and it made him a bit uncomfortable. This was a shame, as our working relationship was pretty good at that point. I don’t know if that changed his attitude about me or if something else might have happened, but I saw our relationship change for the next few years. Perhaps this was a catalyst, who knows? Regardless, jealousy and fear is a real thing in the workplace.
And can you imagine that coming from a king? That had to begin to make the relationship between him and David ultimately more complicated. The text seems to indicate that it was more complicated because of this.
Have you ever had a relationship like this with someone you worked with? How difficult was it in the long run? Do you think things could have been better if people had just minded their own business? There are times when people exacerbate a situation and make it much worse than it needs to be.
- What would you do if you were David and this was happening to you?
- Do you think people were just trying to be supportive?
- How can you avoid getting into this kind of situation while still working hard to do a good job?
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