You Are Your Message!
“Son of man, with one blow I will take away your dearest treasure. Yet you must not show any sorrow at her death. Do not weep; let there be no tears. Groan silently, but let there be no wailing at her grave.
So I proclaimed this to the people the next morning, and in the evening my wife died.”
“Loss is a part of life, of being alive, of being human. Everyone experiences loss. Everyone.”
“Death. Our great enemy. The last enemy. It didn’t schedule an appointment or knock before entering. Death crashed the party.”
No one would want to be Ezekiel. The price of prophetic service was far too high...
God warned Ezekiel that He would take the life of his “dearest treasure,” his beloved wife. The prophet was not to weep or “perform the usual rituals of mourning.” By so doing, Ezekiel was “a sign” (Ezekiel 24.24) to the exiled Jews who would soon experience the loss of their “dearest treasure,” Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem. The Babylonian army would burn and destroy this monument to Jewish glory and the prophet would profoundly identify with their pain in the loss of his wife. This was experienced empathy at the highest level.
Ezekiel was more than the preacher. He was the message. Ezekiel became the sermon he preached. “Do as say, not as I do,” is not an effective role-modeling technique. It’s hard to follow leaders who do not “practice what they preach.” When the alcoholic father chastises his son for drinking, the boy will likely think, “Your actions speak so loud, I can’t hear what you are trying to tell me.”
423 Leaders have a message to impart. They can emphasize at the highest level because they have suffered the devastating effects of addiction in their own lives. They paid the price for the privilege of leadership. Leaders must must personalize and practice the truth you teach or refuse to proclaim it. Jesus Christ’s younger brother warned, “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment”(James 3.1). That’s Bible-speak for, “Walk the talk or... shut up!”
Hopefully, you will never be required to pay Ezekiel’s price to bear God’s truth. But there is a price to pay and suffering is part of the cost for prophetic service. We must die to self-interest and genuinely place the needs of others above our own. Words are cheap. So are small and insincere actions. Nothing less than total identification with your message and audience will do.
You are your message.
“Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you. Christ himself wrote it...”
Would you like to join a group of men, women, or young people fighting against pornography and the spirit of porneia?
The wonderful image of the man with the sandwich board at the top left of this post is by talented illustrator Erwin Sherman whose artwork you can view at http://www.theispot.com/portfolios/index.cfm?clientnumber=a2559&artistName=Erwin%20Sherman. The original piece contains the words "Hire the Best" on the sandwich board.
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