Trying Times – “HIGH AND MIGHTY”
by
Dr. Gale A. Ragan-Reid (5/29/2013, 6/1/2013, 6/15/2013, 6/18/2013, 6/22/2013, 6/29/2013, 7/6/2013, 7/11/2013, 7/15/2013, 7/21/2013, 7/30/2013)
“And one told David, saying Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom. And David said, O LORD, I pray thee, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness” (II Samuel 15:31, King James Version, [Absalom seduceth Israel]).
Greetings in the Name of Jesus,
I could hear the spirits talking as I gardened outside, walking from one end of the garden to the next, surveying what I still needed to accomplish, to meet my daily goals, “High and Mighty!” I pondered the words, “High and Mighty” to myself, wondering what it meant. I knew the truth of those words intended to manifest in my life sooner than later and those words did, just that. The day did not grow nigh, in fact, it was still early before high noon that I spoke to Human Resources about hiring. The last time we spoke, she seemed quite impressed and said, “You are highly qualified” yet I did not get hired but there was hope; I should just keep knocking on the doors until someone hired me; so what happened?
Now, she spoke like I was an intruder and I was in their neck of the woods. I was conceived, here, and to date I have lived here 10 years. I could not understand why, other than the politics of the day prevailed, those in waiting, who did not prepare themselves, like biblical David and were not of God, bucked up and complained that they waited for the opportunity for years and she just could not toss their fortune and their welfare to the side and hire an outsider. The line of reasoning of course, came from some of my family, those that maintained their illiterate nature and those who were just plain cut-throat, in dealings to out-pace whomever they wanted to be “the outlandish” so they could seek favor to receive the benefits, when if the truth be told, then, the world knew they spent time away from the family lands just as my family sect; they returned and pretended they had been here all along toiling and striving, in the soil while everyone else ran off to seek their fortunes elsewhere and now that the jobs finally opened up, here, they should receive the bounteous harvest. Boy!
Can they lie? Yes! They took their chance on seeking their fortune elsewhere, ran back and played the great pretender! Now, I have to deal with their untruth and competitive madness, “High and Mighty!”
Well, the lie that got them the job was the lie they wanted to use to oppress me and explained, “They hired the novice. It was all about the budget. The experienced applicants were paid more wages so it was smart business sense to hire the novice applicants. It was discrimination to say such a malpractice but I held her confidence and frankly enjoyed her honest delivery of what happened, however, it did not make me feel any better to get kicked to the curb for experience or for having lived elsewhere than to appreciate the decision they made to hire the novice.”
No, it was all about leadership and everyone knew you could not expect a pinto to take you where only a limousine goes and where a cadillac could get you, almost there. And, the idea that human capital was cheaper by the dozen when you hired a novice only goes as far as the question, “Can they drive?” will take you. Can they drive scores to where you want them? Can they drive performance to peak? Or, was it a constant slippery slope, high today, gone tomorrow, with continuous error, not knowing where they were; to whom they belonged to and obedience God's plan.
Was it righteous to meet your payroll and not your goals? If, you could not drive beyond
3
the margins, then, you were marginalized with little hope, no doubt about it and those to whom
you held responsibility for and to, picked up on the shallow depth of water, wading in no substance, failing God and yourself; throwing the baby out with the bath water for the little
budget given, was squandered away in the meaningless effort to fake responsibility, for God said, “All things are possible.” Why do you make a mockery of the word of God acting like God can not afford to hire the best and experienced so that they could turnaround and train the novice? In my father's house are many mansions, if it were not so, then, I would not have told you.
Please, let my living not be in vain. Father, do not let my living be in vain. I could not feel right living a life of vain glory, ignoring the truth inside of me. When have you ever read that
God sacrificed his plan for vain glory and made a mockery of his plan for vain glory and convinced his family and his children that he did not have the resources and the power, to make a difference?
I heard someone say, maybe it was a television show, “Man plans and God laughs!” Some
jobs were not novice jobs. David tending to the sheep, impressionable and very much in love with God, was young but an experienced shepherd. You just could not waste the little money of the budget trying to turn the investment into high scores and high performance with the skills of a novice because a novice was not a novice with God behind them, so, without God, truly a novice was a wanderer in the desert without direction, goals, purpose, and skill. David's skill killed Goliath. David was not a novice.
Are they hiring Davids or big-headed and puffed up great pretenders? You might have bodies in place in job positions but you were still understaffed and lacked the knowledge to make a difference, to move the knowledge from the packaged containers to the hearts of those who sought to become true believers, knowing God led them to the promise land of eternal life and salvation through Christ Jesus. Might it be that I felt a bit disappointed and put-out; jealous that they decided to select the novice over the experienced and meanly justified it with nonsense as far as long-term growth potential, was leveraged? It will take them longer to get to where they were going in their achievements and goals or they could slip back into the pit of despair and let dishonesty and cheating prevail, again but surely they learned their lesson, this time and will not use cheating to cover up bad decision making.
I found myself, bereft of oppressors; with the oppressors always having something oppressive to say to squash decency, dignity and self-esteem. They ran. How can a person living on the good graces of God via Christ Jesus, to sustain herself, every day, be “High and Mighty?” We know the truth, of those, who pomp and circumstance, under the veil, saying, “We can not afford this so we should do this in order to accomplish this to make us goal-oriented instead of impulse makers. You walk around the block, two times; you know you have been around the block, two times and decide to take the alley back, the back roads, even the side roads, and finally the truth found you and you know, they only called on the affordability to manipulate everyone, in order to do something else, usually another expenditure that favored, who else but themselves, in all probability, the path favored the naysayers and progress slipped away just like the last time and the only ones, “High and Mighty” were those on the take and the only progress made was the progress that the naysayers made for themselves, acting like they were “lying in green pastures” because God willed it to be so. No, it was their will; man going amuck just like Jezebel did and David's son, Absalom, did, full of ambition.
Amazingly, the idea to just consider the offer on the table was amiss, and also the action to weigh the offer in the perfection of the offer, not persuade the members of the one body to dissuade others, standing against the offer. The imperfections of the offer specifically spoke to what your decision should be, not the influence of others. The imperfections disapproved, not the
3
naysayers because God could work any plan even the most ridiculous, if, the ridiculous plan
was perfectly ridiculous in its perfection. There was so much time and effort spent in, death and destruction; negativity until it boggled the mind how much production was lost, daily and how the human capital failed to recognize their own flawed imperfections, especially in interaction with others, in decisionmaking. What difference does it make, when you say “High and Mighty”, if, the “High and Mighty” was in its own perfection, because the “High and Mighty” should bear fruit, not just the fruit from the low-hanging branches but you should be able to reach up and out to grab hold and perfect the fruit from the high overhanging branches that most folks thought were unobtainable, unreachable and untouchable? All things were possible.
May the peace of God be with you. May Christ be with you. May the Spirit be with you.
