February 26

Our family is always excited for a new episode of I Shouldn't Be Alive... amazing stories of people surviving against all odds, enduring starvation, dehydration, crippling injuries, and the most treacherous enemy of all, despair. I recall one where two mountaineers fell into a cravace.

A cravace is an opening in the ice, think of a long narrow ice canyon that can be hundreds of feet deep. They are often covered by snow, obscuring them, causing unsuspecting mountaineers to misstep and plummet, possibly to their death. In Numbers 12, we find Aaron and Miriam falling into a leadership cravace. What? When we observe a decision or an action by someone we have a sense of loyalty towards as a leader, we find this thought creeping in, "I could do what they do, possibly even better." That may even be true, that may even be your destiny, but if you violate your integrity, if you break an allegiance, if you sacrifice your loyalty...you are about to fall into a leadership cravace. It looks like safe ground to tread...just ask Aaron and Miriam. There is a proper way for succession to take place, but betrayal is never the path.

Don't throw away your future leadership by demanding it prematurely!

Pastor Fred

(examiner articles)