flirtations

I am not exactly talking about David and Bathsheba or Samson and Delilah here, but I may be. Flirtations are one of the three keys that consistently lead to leadership failure. Now I love flirtations. And it's the very nature of flirtations to be a distraction. That is actually the point of a flirtation . . . to have a distraction, to have a change of . . . something in the course of the day, to ease the intensity of focus. This is bad. It shows the weakness of my character.

There are at least three types of flirtations that I can see. When Jesus is telling the parable of the Wedding Feast, there were three excuses given why the invited ones couldn't come right at that moment: one had bought a piece of property, one had just purchased five teams of oxen, and one had just gotten married - e.g. property, transportation and relationships. There are probably as many flirtations as there are people in the world, but these three are particularly universal.

In the course of our lifetimes, we spend unbelievable amounts of resources on property, and yes, we do have to have a place to live, this is a fact. But the size, location and costs of our housing choices may well be more of a wall than a flirtation. "But it's a good investment" people tell me all the time. "For who?" is my answer/question. Who benefits from the investment, me or the King?

Transportation is such a kicker for me. My poor wife married a horse trader. Her parents would (and still do) get a cheap car and drive it until the wheels fell off, literally. Me, I wanted a different car each quarter of the year. I just loved the variety! I keep the same woman, but I loved to trade cars. I got it honest from my own father. But you will notice that I have been using the past tense, because it is a black hole for losing money. That was 20 years ago. Today people just want something new and often big. Living overseas for the much of the last 12 years has changed my perspective a bit. Most of the citizens of this world do not own a car or truck. Most people in the world own a bike or a pair of shoes. Transportation can be a real flirtation - a distraction from our focus.

Relationships. Well here I could be talking about David and Bathsheba here, or lots of inbetween stuff as well. The whole point that got slammed home to me was that I can spend quite a bit of time pursuing, investing, chasing and energy on flirtations in my life. I can think of a 1000 reasons why these flirtations are important, healthy even! But this statement just kills this line of reasoning, "Simply put, if you are not willing to take what is dearest to you, whether plans or people, and kiss it goodbye, you can't be my disciple." (Luke 14:33) Man that cross thing bites.