And he wrote in the letter, saying, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retreat from him, that he may be struck down and die.” ~ 2 Samuel 11:15Pittacus wrote, “The measure of a man is what he does with power.” Second Samuel 11 tells the story of a king who forgot that leaders wield power for one reason only – to serve. Consider the “Path to Abusive Power” in leaders:
Stage One: Surprise – “I get this?”
Stage Two: Self-Esteem – “I need this.”
Stage Three: Satisfaction – “I deserve this.”
Stage Four: Selfishness – “I demand this.”
By watching King David weave a tangled web following his sin with Bathsheba, we notice five common abuses of power that still trip up leaders today. Calvin Miller describes them this way:
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Drifting away from those disciplines we still demand of our people.
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Believing that others owe us whatever use we can make of them.
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Attempting to fix things up rather than make things right.
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Refusing to accept that we could be blindly out of God’s will.
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Believing that people in our way are expendable.