Hidden Power of Envy

Proverbs 24:19-20 (NIV)   Do not fret because of evil men or be envious of the wicked, for the evil man has no future hope, and the lamp of the wicked will be snuffed out.
For the believing leader, this admonition seems simplistic - perhaps, not even very insightful. Because we know the end and the One who holds the end in His hands, we have hope and should live without envy. However, secular literature supports this Biblical observation that envy and leadership are intermixed in many complex ways. Conceptual psychoanalytic research suggests that envy is often so painful an emotion for leaders that it is driven to the unconscious resulting in behaviors that undermine a leader's ability to attract and maintain followers. Biblical Leadership is a "heart" issue - one that takes a power higher than ourselves to expose the hidden drivers that capture our thought-life. Leaders will succeed by "filling [their] minds and meditating on things that are true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious-the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse." [Phil. 4:4-6 (MSG)] What are you thinking about?

Copyright © 2006 by P. Griffith Lindell