What would you say if I asked you what the most important trait is for a faithful and effective leader? I’ve thought a lot about that. While there are many great answers to that question, I have found that one serves as the soil by which all the answers grow from. Humility. I imagine nobody is shocked by that answer. It’s not a new word, method, or three-step plan on how to be a great leader. It’s bigger than that. Whatever method you study or plan you follow, unless it grows from the soil of humility, it will eventually lose steam. We see the effects of ignoring humility all around us. A lack of humility has caused many veteran leaders to implode without finishing well, and it’s caused many talented young leaders who took off like a rocket early in their careers to never really make it into orbit. A lack of humility is shrinking the life span of so many young leaders in the Church. Charles Swindoll says it this way, “you cannot ignore humility and minister effectively.”
Pride is a dangerous sin. It’s like a weed. It grows without intentionality. Those who have reached the age in life where you care about your lawn (I am there) know that for your grass to grow and be healthy, it takes diligence and intentionality, but you don’t really have to do anything for weeds to grow. In fact, the more you ignore it, the faster they seem to grow and spread. I think pride works the same way. If we are not actively fighting pride in our lives, we will unintentionally ignore humility, drift towards arrogance, and short-circuit our leadership. The way the Puritan Thomas Brooks said it was, “Pride grows with the decrease of other sins, and thrives by their decay. Satan is subtle; he will make a man proud of his very graces—he will make him proud that he is not proud.”
We can see the devastating effects of pride on display in the life of King Uzziah recorded in the 26th Chapter of 2 Chronicles. Everyone should go read this chapter. These 23 verses present the sober reality of the consequences of a leader who ignores humility.
Here are a few warnings from King Uzziah’s leadership that I pray will help us embrace humility and resist arrogance.
1.Don’t lose your dependency on God.
King Uzziah became king at 16 years old. Can you imagine that? While we were learning to drive, Uzziah was learning to be a king. It says in verses 4-5 that he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, which is amazing if you know the story of the Kings. There weren’t many Kings who did what was right in the eyes of the LORD. Not only did he do what was right, but verse four tells us that he sought after God and submitted himself to the wise and godly counsel of the priest, Zechariah. Scripture tells us that as long as he sought the LORD, God gave him success. And just like that, his leadership journey shot off like a rocket. He was hugely successful. He built towers and led a well-trained army of over 300,000 men. In verse 15, we are told that King Uzziah’s fame spread far and wide, for he was greatly helped until he became powerful. Success and power are dangerous things if you lose sight of how you got them and why you have them. In King Uzziah’s story, all of his success went to his head. I love the way Tim Keller said it, “Never let success go to your head, and never let failure go to your heart.” Verse 16 tells us that Uzziah’s power led to his pride, and his pride led to his downfall. The Proverbs writer’s words in Proverbs 16:18 have proved time and time again that “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”
2.Don’t etch your name on a trophy that rightly belongs to God.
Success has a funny way of giving us short-term memory loss. In verse five, it is clear that all the success that Uzziah experienced was given to him by God. It’s so important that we understand that. You are not successful because you achieved success, or because you have a great work ethic, or because you are wise, or because you persevered. You experience success because God has given it to you. He is the one to be rightly credited for every good thing in our lives. But how often do we let His good gifts lead to us getting glory? We are so tempted to hoist the trophies we earn in life and point to heaven with one hand while etching our name on the trophy with the other. God gave Uzziah the victory, but Uzziah is the one who became powerful and whose name became famous. One of our anchor verses in the Passion movement is Isaiah 26:8 “Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desire of our hearts.” Uzziah would have done good to remember this, and we would, too. Let’s resist self-exaltation by embracing and cultivating a heart that gives glory to the God who has given us everything in the first place.
3.Don’t forget that the rules still apply to you.
As you ignore humility in your life, you will simultaneously embrace entitlement. You will begin to justify your actions because of your position. As pride grows, you slowly convince yourself you are above the rules. I don’t really have to be at that. I don’t have to meet that deadline. Those apply to everyone else. I’m in charge. I think this is what the Proverbs writer is describing when he refers to a “haughty spirit” (Proverbs 16:18). It means to have an inflated and inaccurate view of self. This is what happened to King Uzziah. This man, who at one point was submitted to the leadership of the Priest Zechariah and who genuinely sought after the LORD, now saw himself as mighty and powerful. So, in verse 16, the same verse that describes his pride, it says that King Uzziah was unfaithful to God and entered the temple to burn incense on the altar. Only the priests were authorized to do this. But Uzziah, in his newfound fame and success, convinced himself that the rules didn’t apply to him. As the priests confront him, he “burns with anger” as if to say, “Do you know who I am?” The same man, who at one point sought out the instruction from the priest, is now enraged by the priests. This is the breaking point for King Uzziah. His pride led to his demise, as it does for so many leaders. The end of King Uzziah’s story is a sad yet poignant warning for any leader who ignores humility and embraces a prideful heart. He was struck with leprosy in the temple and banned from it. Soon after, this leader, who was once mighty and powerful, was buried in the land of his ancestors.
Interestingly, the name Uzziah means “God is my strength.” If only Uzziah could have remembered that God was his strength. He would have remained dependent on God, given God all the glory for his success, and continued to seek and submit to the godly leadership in his life. Instead, his arrogance short-circuited his leadership. The man whose leadership journey took off like a rocket as a 16-year-old is remembered today as a warning.
Regardless of what leadership post God has you stationed at today, I pray we would all cultivate a heart of humility that would allow us to live with integrity and faithfulness.
Scripture References
