"I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter."

This is a story about the decisions we make when we choose to listen to the voices around us, instead of our own, and we end up going in directions we don’t want to go. Yet we listen to them anyway, not knowing it may cost us our lives.

There’s a tug of war going on in Herod’s household – his wife wants John dead, and Herod wants him alive. His wife sees John as an irritating boil on the underside of their marriage and wants him lanced. Herod sees him as a man of integrity who speaks God’s truth.

The pressure’s on.
Will Herod cave?
The painting above tells us the answer.

What happens to us when we cave?
Three things. First, we allow others to define us. We surrender the ship to the sailors, relinquishing our appointed roles to those less qualified and much less invested in the good will of the enterprise. Second, we tear down our own self-image. We subtly give in to our deepest fears of self-worth, trading our confidence in ourselves for that of others, to our long-term detriment. And finally, when we choose to listen to the voices of others over our own we give up our ability to reach our full potential. We will never be complete. We can only ascend to the heights of a scale defined by someone else, not by us, not by God.

Living Christian lives of integrity is a by-product of a deeper walk with Jesus.
Growing in Christ means continually reminding ourselves of our place in the universe; we are God’s people, created for a reason, destined for duty, equipped with hearts made for hearing the Creator’s voice, so each one of us can play the unique role we’ve been given. And while our stage instructions frequently come from other people, we all play a balancing game between “Mother Knows Best” and our own inner conscience, which sometimes takes us someplace else.

To what degree do we allow the voices and opinions of others to shape us? Do we understand the consequences of this? In what ways can we be more true to the voice within us?

Reading…
Walking the Bible – Bruce Feiler
The Sins of Scripture – John Spong
The Great Divorce – C.S. Lewis