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The seduction of power. It creeps up on you and before you know it—voilá, you are no longer “you” but a totally different persona moved like a marionette by the strings of money, fame, and adulation.

As Christians we have a tendency to think that can’t happen to us. Sure, we see actors, politicians, athletes, singers, dance to the pull of those marionette strings. But us? No way, José. Uh … maybe we should take a step back and think a little on it.

First of all, there’s 1 Corinthians 10:11, “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” The histories of saints in the Old Testament are recorded for us, that we might see their successes and their failures so that we might emulate the first and avoid the latter. For a reason. God was making provision to help us through life's challenges because He knew that we, as humans, could (gasp!) fall ...

Take David, a man the Lord says was “a man after his own heart” (1 Samuel 13:24). Yet when he let his guard down, yielding to the seduction of the luxury afforded him as king, “at the time when kings go forth to battle … David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel … But David tarried still at Jerusalem” (2 Samuel 11:1). And that was all it took for the beginning of a downward spiral that took him to commit adultery and murder. A man after God’s own heart let the good stuff, the benefits, of doing

whatever his heart desired because he was king, go to his head. So instead of what he should have been doing, leading his men in battle, he stayed behind to luxuriate in his kingly benefits—and the results were disastrous.

His is not the only Biblical example of power gone bad. Saul, initially humble, let his position go to his head and took on actions not appropriate for a king—and lost the kingdom (1 Samuel 15). Then there was Solomon, so very wise in the beginning but who succumbed to the allure of multiple wives, trying

in his own way to make alliances with other nations through marriage instead of leaning on God’s providence—and in the process got his heart turned towards idols (1 Kings 11:1-8).

These are just stories, you say, they have nothing to do with me. Really? I guess that’s what the visiting minister to our church on the mission field, the one who was never invited back, must have thought. The one who had to have a certain brand of water bottle and a certain temperature in his room, among other non-negotiable requirements, because his personal wants were so important. Really? On the mission field? What was this guy thinking??? He wasn’t thinking, he was going with the “I have a big head” flow of being a solicited speaker. I guess he missed the part in the Bible where Jesus said, “And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all. For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:44-45).

This might sound harsh, but it’s truth. And it can happen to any of us. Shoot feller, it even began to creep up on Nobody Me! In my book, The Accidental Missionary, I speak about how the mere act of traveling with Auntie Trinie, a revered minister in Mexico and many other countries, began to introduce an insidious sense of importance into my psyche. Basically, everywhere Auntie went she was treated like royalty. And, as her loyal sidekick , I got a little of that special treatment, too. Then we went to a conference in the jungles of Veracruz— and I nearly croaked when Auntie (and I along with her) was treated like an ordinary bloke. Sleep in a room with a bunch of other people on a concrete floor? Didn’t these people realize who Auntie was? If they did, they must have decided that what was good enough for Jesus was good enough for her. It took a concrete floor to make me look at my burgeoning wrong expectations. Jesus had nowhere to sleep. Jesus had no home. Jesus was treated despicably. And I had the gall to expect to be treated better than He? I really needed to revisit John 13:16!

No, my friends, it’s not just famous people who can succumb to Big Head Syndrome. I invite you to examine your heart and take any corrective action needed. Psalm 149:4 says that the Lord takes pleasure in His people. Let’s make Jesus proud. Let’s walk in His footsteps—humbly!

“He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require

of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” (Micah 6:8)