“Saul has killed his thousands, and David his ten thousands!”

It is expected today that if you are a leader that you need to have someone coming up behind you who can be your successor. If you don’t, especially as we climb more senior on the corporate ladder, we can expect that we won’t progress as we must have someone or someones behind us who can take our place.  It takes systemic and long term thinking to put together a plan and then stick with it to get someone ready for the future. We have to be willing to teach, accept mistakes, allow people to get smarter and to also put our own performance on the line when our proteges fail or disappoint us and others. What does that mean? That means that we have full corporate support and buy-in to raise up the next generation.  It won’t be easy, but there isn’t a better time than now to start to identify, groom, grow and develop those who can do your job in the future.

A few weeks ago, Pastor Luis Menjivar, taught at my church, CornerstoneSF.  He spoke on the contrasts between King Saul and David.  What struck me most, among Luis’ other great lessons, was that Saul just wasn’t ready to be succeeded.  He was supposed to be with God and others telling him that his time was up, but Saul just couldn’t get over the fact that David was garnering more accolades, praise, respect and following than Saul was now able.  I find the lesson to also be that when we fully humble ourselves to God’s will that we have to be ready for His will to remove us, replace us, subordinate us, and/or make us irrelevant to those who we have sought for validation in the past.  There is only One from whom we need to be concerned with for validation and acceptance and this is in Him! When we find ourselves either threatened or insecure about our place, then let’s be sure and remember that it is only His “line” that really matters.

Reference:  1 Samuel 18:7 (New Living Translation)