Intimidation vs. Inspiration

Leaders, teachers, bosses, coaches, managers:

What’s your goal with those you’re leading?

Do your methods of influence reflect that goal?

What do you really want for and from those you are leading?

Intimidation and punishment will usually only modify behavior. At best.

Discipline and inspiration change us internally - stir our minds and hearts.

Stir someone's heart - change someone's mind - and their behavior will change as well.

Do you simply want behavior to change? Or the person to be transformed?

Intimidation is almost always a symptom or sign of fear and insecurity.

Yelling at an employee for making a mistake may modify their behavior and give an outlet for expressing your anger, but it most certainly won't inspire them to grow or be stretched. It will do the opposite. They will cower and shrink back.

Screaming at an athlete and punishing them for striking out or throwing an interception or missing a free throw doesn't teach them, encourage them, or inspire them. It just causes them to fear the next time they strike out, throw an interception, or miss a free throw. That kind of fear doesn't motivate us; it paralyzes us.

I asked the question: What do you really want for and from those you are leading?

Maybe the first question should be:

Do I want anything for the person? 

Or do I just want something from them?

Wanting something from someone produces laziness. Laziness breeds coersion.

Wanting something for someone produces leadership. Leadership offers inspiration!

Want to inspire someone? Teach them.

Want to motivate someone? Encourage them.

Want to lead someone? Show them how it's done and stand behind them. 

He Freed Me From All My Fears

I was reading Psalm 34 today and something struck me. David wrote this Psalm during the time that he pretended to be crazy so that Abimelech would consider him harmless and send him away. David, the anointed King of the Most High God, was very much alone. He probably felt overwhelming loneliness, abandonment, isolation, betrayal, and now his reputation and pride were seriously in question. As he reflected on this time of great uncertainty, he wrote these words:

"I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the humble hear and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together."

You could paraphrase David as saying: "People think I'm crazy. Many of my own people have turned their backs on me. I'm in a strange land among my enemies. Everything I know that is comfortable and familiar are a distant memory. But you know what? God is good! He is always good! And nothing will stop me from proclaiming his goodness. He has rescued me once again."

How seldom do I have that kind of perspective?

While these first 3 verses spoke loudly to me today, it was the next verse - verse 4 - that spoke deeply.

David now says:

"I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears."

From all my fears! All of them.

FEAR. What is it?

A feeling of dread?

A deceiving emotion?

The realization that what I've been worshiping (other than God) has finally failed me?

Yes. All of the above. 

That's one kind of fear. That's the fear that the Lord delivered David from.

You know how he delivered him from that fear? With another kind of fear.

Back to Psalm 34. Look at verses 7-10:

"The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack! The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing."

David feared. Feared for his life. Feared for his reputation. Feared the disapproval of man.

David was freed from that fear when he remembered:

"The Lord is good. The Lord delivers. The Lord redeems. The Lord provides."

"The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous. The Lord is near the brokenhearted."

David's son, Solomon, would go on to say: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." He was right. 

And the fear of the Lord defeats the fear of man.

The fear of the Lord finds joy and hope, even while the emotion of fear is raging.

Reverence for the Lord crushes fear.

Perfect love drives out all fear.

Whatever you’re facing, know that “the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him. And he delivers them!”

If you want to taste and see the goodness of God…take refuge in him. Seek him. Those who seek him lack no good thing.

Because he is good! He is always good!