The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, “There is still one prophet through whom we can inquire of the LORD, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.” – 2 Chronicles 18:7

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 18, 2013): 2 Chronicles 18

A number of years ago I read Jim Collins book “Good to Great.”  I found it such a good read, and it connected with what I felt inside was true.  I also found that the book reflected the world that I wanted to live in. And one of the things that Collins said in the book was that we have to get good at looking at what is wrong in our lives.  As he put it, we have a choice between leaving the rock stuck in the sand, or picking up the rock and looking at the squiggles hiding underneath.  If we want to succeed, we need to see the squiggles.

At the same time, we also have to admit that not everything that someone says against us is really wrong.  Sometimes people will speak against what is right.  But if we are to succeed in life, we have to know the difference between the truth about the squiggles in our lives and someone who is just trying to bring us down.  But our truth is that it is often difficult to discern the difference. I had a conversation with the son of a good friend last week, and he had found something in school hard to understand so he had just given up. And my message to him was that he had to continue in the struggle, giving up is not an option when life presents us with something that is hard. And somehow we have to learn to discern the difference between what is right and what is wrong in our lives.

It was obvious that Ahab hasn’t discovered how to know the difference.  Instead, he just shut it all off.  He was the master of the ostrich strategy – he has learned to hide his head in the sand with the secure knowledge that what he doesn’t know will not be able to hurt him.  Unfortunately, the strategy never works. If we don’t know what is wrong, then we can’t fix it. We cannot resort to the practice of blocking the comments of those who might want to criticize what it is that we do. We need to learn to honestly evaluate the criticism.  If it is something that needs to be addressed – then address it.  It might be God speaking through a prophet into your life. 

But whatever you do, don’t just leave the rocks in the sand.  Kick them over and look at the squiggles that are hiding underneath. The practice will begin to change your life.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 19