Proverbs Experiment: Day Eleven

Proverbs Chapter Eleven:

The Lord hates cheating, but he delights in honesty. Pride leads to disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom. Good people are guided by their honesty; treacherous people are destroyed by their dishonesty. Riches won't help on the day of judgment, but right living is a safeguard against death. The godly are directed by their honesty, the wicked fall beneath their load of sin. (vs. 1-5)

Reading the first five verses of Proverbs 11 immediately brought to my mind the financial situation of our country right now. There are obviously many reasons why it looks like we are heading into a recession, but one of the main reasons is the greed and dishonesty prevalent in some of our companies and financial institutions. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Decisions made by CEO's of large companies, largely fueled by greed and the desire for more stock options and bigger year-end bonuses don't just have a trickle down effect upon their workers and upon the rest of us; these days it's more like a waterfall of problems. I remember reading somewhere that in 1982, a CEO of a corporation made on average 42 times more than that of the average worker in the corporation. In 2004 (the last data I could find), that number became 431-to-1.

On one hand, I believe that companies in America should have some freedoms to running their business the way they want to (within reason of course). On the other hand, there is so much corruption and greed these days, that we cannot trust that people will make the right decisions that will benefit others and not just themselves. We have seen examples of corporations that have been destroyed by the greed and dishonesty of upper management (see Enron); yet others get away scott free. I guess it's good to know that at some point, there will be responsibility for the actions of the greedy and wicked. Sometimes I wish those responsibilities would come sooner - and perhaps they won't even happen in this life - but it's reassuring to know that it will happen someday.

Without wise leadership, a nation falls; with many counselors, there is safety (vs. 14).

I remember when I was at a church in Dallas, we had these round table discussions, where a topic would be picked, and then we would discuss (sometimes argue) the topic at hand. Someone would take notes, and this round table discussion would then be put in the monthly newsletter. I don't remember the topic that was discussed one day, but I remember the singles minister talking about how in the Bible, and beyond the Bible, there always seemed to be a pattern with nations - and that ultimately, those nations would fall because of the corrupt leadership. It happened with Rome, it happened with Ancient Greece, we've seen it happen even in the last century with a few nations who have fallen apart because of corrupt leadership.

We see it happen in churches as well - where the leadership of the church made poor decisions, and as a result, the church falls apart underneath the weight of those decisions.

I wonder if wisdom is a characteristic that people look for when they are electing or hiring their leaders. I think that in the candidates that we had for president this year, we saw examples of wisdom and foolishness from both. Both made wise and foolish decisions in their pasts, and both made wise and foolish decisions during the campaign. I think it's good in churches as well to evaluate the decisions made by the leadership. Are those decisions mostly wise and godly, or are they mostly foolish and self-seeking? This could be a great standard by which churches can hold their leadership to.