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Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Number one follower


This week I was in a class setting and the place was packed.  Every chair was taken.  After the class started, a woman walked in late, and she didn't have a seat.  The instructor said that one of the men better give up his.  I jumped to my feet and allowed her to take my place in the back row.  What I didn't know was that there was one more chair in the room but it was the teachers.  The student was hoping to use that one but she took mine quietly.  Then the instructor gave me his and I sat up against the back wall.  He called me out in a good way and asked the women in class a rhetorical question, "what do you women think of Keith?"

On the surface this seems like I was doing a good thing.  Yet, upon reflection, I realize that nothing has changed in me.  I had an urge in my heart to offer the woman my seat but it took the leading of the instructor to get me to act.  I wasn't leading.  I was following.  I waited until I was told what to do.  After being asked, I took action.  Leaders do the right thing in the first place.  I was just being a good follower.

The women in the class commented that I was nice and all.  But that too is another indicator that nothing has changed in me.  My goal is not to be nice.  The Bible does not tell us to be nice.  I should have acted on the prompting of the Holy Spirit.  My heart was telling me to give up my seat and I responded by sitting there secretly telling her that she should have come earlier.  How's that for being "nice"?  I should have been leading, acting, taking initiative, and doing it with humility.  And that is not what I was doing.  We are told in scripture that even our righteous acts are like filthy rags in Gods sight.  I think that apply's here.

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