THE WISDOM OF ABIGAIL: A MODEL FOR GOOD PEOPLE SKILLS People Skill #6: The Capacity to Reconcile5/8/2017
 The world is full of Nabals. Even if you’re a David—a man after God’s own heart, anointed as royalty—you will encounter certain antisocial personalities who stir up contention, tear others down, and bring out the worst in people. If you lack the capacity that Abigail had to work through these issues and bring reconciliation, you will remain among the contaminated, made bitter by offense and disqualified for the next level. On the contrary, Abigail’s ability to navigate offense and mediate reconciliation was a crowning achievement that set her on the path to promotion.
In my experience as a pastor, the most difficult aspects of life are often conflicts in relationships. On some level, everyone is carrying deep scars from how they were mistreated or deeply offended. Countless people have left churches, quit jobs, and separated from family because they were mad at leaders, upset with friends, or felt betrayed by those they trusted. They only way to survive this turbulent complexity of interpersonal connections is through people skills. Without them, any promotion to the next level will be short-lived, for that next level will certainly bring its own matrix of complex relationships, even more nuanced than those you currently face. With higher levels come not only higher devils, but bigger egos, greater entitlement, and more experience with betrayal. There are five basic conflicts that wound people in relationships. Serving as a pastor has given me the unfortunate opportunity of witnessing these dynamics all too often. I believe, however, that if God’s people are committed to developing biblical people skills, such as loving one another above ourselves, we can overcome each of these following challenges. Conflict #1: When you’re personally offended. Conflict #2: When you have offended someone. Conflict #3: When you take up someone else’s offense. Conflict #4: When encountering a divisive spirit. Conflict #5: When in disagreement with leaders. For more information on “The Five Conflicts that Wound Relationships,” check out my latest book, UPWARD: Taking Your Life to the Next Level now available on Amazon. Comments are closed.
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It was concerning King Saul that David said, “How the mighty have fallen, and the weapons of war perished.” His was a life that began with great promise and celebration, but ended in miserable failure and humiliation. His life is an example of how the mightiest of leaders fail.
Why do great men and women fall? How do leaders, quick to ascend with such promise of unparalleled success, find themselves awash in disastrous failure and disgrace? More importantly, can the path toward one’s downfall be discerned before it’s too late and be avoided? It is the premise of my newest book, How The Mighty Have Fallen that such a decline can be detected and reversed. The life and leadership career of King Saul, Israel's first king, provides us with a treasury of examples of "what not to do." The below blog post is the first in series of excerpts from the book to examine and avoid Saul's mistakes and find a successful path through leadership. READ AN EXCERPT |
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