the hired hand

The hired hand can never be God’s hand.

No matter how gifted the hireling may be no one can serve two masters.

The gift will be spoiled though it glistens like diamonds and pearls.

The hired hand will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other.

One cannot sing the song of heaven and the song of man at the same time.

 

We lay down by Babylon’s rivers.

And it was there that those who remembered Zion wept

How could they sing the song of the Lord in a strange land?

 

God cannot be bought.

God cannot be hired.

Is it possible for God to be in any way involved in such a transaction?

When the hired hand comes into the service of the master how is it possible for there to be any sincere heart honesty towards that master?

How will the master know whether the hired hand is serving him or the hired hands own selfish ends?

And how will the hired hand know whether he is serving God or his earthly masters selfish ends?

And if the hired hand is to serve the purposes of God how can he serve his human master at the same time?

His head and heart will be divided and his destruction will be inevitable.

And his destroyer will be his earthly master.

And folly will be the lot of both the master and the hireling.

he was murdered for this

He went about doing good and healing all who were under heavy pressure from negative, evil circumstance.   As he went along amazing things seemed to happen around him.  It was clear that a force much more powerful than himself, the words he spoke, or the deeds he did was tangibly present with him.   Lives were marvelously changed as he made contact with all manner of people and as a consequence they sought him out and followed him virtually wherever he went.   They thronged around and asked him questions and he graciously spoke back to them in response.   He taught them what the sacred texts had hidden in them, presented a revolutionary, fresh angle on ancient truth and opened the eyes of the blind.   He demonstrated by way of his own lifestyle, a way of life that had never been seen before.   As a result lame legs were restored, withered arms were straightened and for the first time enabled to reach out and touch, caress and even heal.

Other than the twelve he officially called to be his personal disciples, to leave their homes and families and to walk with him he never asked anyone else to join him or follow him as he walked.   He never developed unrealistic expectations in the hearts and minds of those who met him and instead seemed rather to make it more difficult for them to follow him than that which first was apparent.   He was unpredictable in almost everything he did and when expected to ‘zig’, he ‘zagged.’   He extracted no payment for his service of kindness but often met the needs of the poor instead.   His only charge was for all to honour God and do as he did – to follow his example of giving up his own life for those of his friends.  In fact, he more often than not forbade the recipients of his kindness their passionate request to follow him and even had the emancipated fortitude of wisdom, personal conviction and divine sense of purpose to amongst many other seemingly controversial acts,  inadvertently cause a very wealthy man with all his worldly resources, to turn away from following him by lovingly revealing the great poverty of the mans extreme wealth and success.

He had no personal empire of material or political wealth.   He never drew attention to himself nor promoted his service.  If anything, he underplayed the accolades of the crowd and preferred to call himself the ‘son of man’, a lowly, unpretentious description for someone who performed such incredible feats of miraculous kindness.   He never owned any form of personal transportation nor any building with attractive, socially trendy décor to accommodate the masses who pressed in.   Instead, he chose the dusty footpaths, market places, the homes of often socially inappropriate people, taverns and once a week, the small, traditional religious gathering spots to make contact with people.  He had no permanent roof over his head other than the stars, no place to call his own nor to hang his hat or raise his banner.   He tended more often than not to profoundly offend the established religious order and the prevalent leadership of the day and they too pursued him relentlessly, but for other reasons than respect, admiration and gratitude.

Eventually Jesus was murdered for this, as are any who follow his example and do as he did.

leadership according to the order of the hosts of siphonaptera

What is leadership?

Is it something we are?

Is leadership something we do?

Are leaders born or are they made?

Is leadership something we can or even should aspire to?

Is leadership a privileged existence or a life of servitude? In other words, is a leader a first amongst servants (a prime minister) or an authority figure who rules as a Chief Executive Officer (a President)?

Let’s face it, leadership is a much sought after currency. It speaks of power, control, status, achievement, dominance, wealth, superiority, prestige, knowledge, importance, popularity, money, success, and many, many other things. It is also apparently more seductive and desirous than anything Hollywood could ever conjure up.

Our present social political context with democracy as the apparent governmental system of choice places the office of leadership in yet another way. This style of governance revolves around a leader campaigning for votes and convincing the often uneducated and misinformed masses of the candidates personal attractiveness, charm, superiority and competency to represent them as their democratically elected leader.

Leadership is indeed a complicated issue of which many greater minds than ours have wrestled over and still not ever fully agreed on.

I am not here trying to make a definitive statement on what leadership is or even should be. Instead, because leaders these days tend to take themselves very seriously what I’d like to do is to pose a parody on leadership that in a somewhat humorous way might just perhaps serve us as we navigate for ourselves a path towards our own individual understanding on the matter.

Sometimes it is good to look at an issue from a different point of view to see it a little clearer… . . . (that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it… )

Either way, whatever our personal conclusions might or might not be we do still need to continue to walk through what I would like to suggest is a rather sad, stark, headless wilderness in global leadership history.

(… . . . and may the force be with us and not against)  

So, at last, here’s my parody; – I propose that leadership today could be seen much the same as a dog chasing its own tail.

For the dog it is a very serious quest which is passionately attacked with what can only be seen as an obsessive preoccupation. For most onlookers it strikes a humorous chord much like a side-show in a traveling circus would and beckons us closer to watch intently from a short, yet safe distance as we wait for the inevitable outcome. … and we are seldom disappointed.

What we are witness to is essentially a mindless task of vain, futile, deception that if successful is extremely satisfying (only for the dog, mind you) , but then only satisfying for a mere split second until the pain of the initial bite is registered. The self inflicted wound is endured of course, but only because the perceived humiliation of letting go is deemed far more embarrassing and painful to the ego of the dog than enduring the actual pain of the incisory act.

It takes a bit of time, but soon the creeping revelation starts to set in that the apparent success of the venture serves only to place the dog in a locked-in position dangerously close to its own backside (and all the accompanying aromatic benefits associated with this position).

It is only then that in extremely rare cases the hapless canine beast is awakened to the fact that it has now committed itself (if it ever really ever desired to go anywhere strategically significant in the first place) to an entrenched path of running around in a singular, personally exhausting, never ending, circle of which the only way out is to let go and to never attempt the mindless, trick again.

In the end (pun intended) leadership may be a dogs life, but being a non participating observer is perhaps equal to the folly (punt indented).

If I may risk a brief summation, may I suggest that perhaps we consider exchanging the aspirations we may seem to have in our minds towards leadership in general as we see it demonstrated in our present time for something more life affirming, dignifying, effective, meaningful and productive such as the simple, passionate pursuit of personal honesty and integrity.

And if others follow our example, well….  maybe then we might just possibly be moving towards a better definition of leadership…. only, let’s not formalise it or take it too seriously, for heaven’s sake!

However, if no immediate understanding or workable option comes to mind it might be advisable to strongly consider assuming the nuclear holocaust position which is:

1. do not panic!

2. find a dry, safe, secure spot

3. sit quietly on the floor with arms folded in a protective self-embrace.

4. place head firmly between your knees

5.   … and kiss your future goodbye!!

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