An important lesson I learned while growing up is that you can get too big for your britches. This has nothing to do with outgrowing your clothes. This has everything to do with outgrowing your importance. It is a matter of thinking you are faster, better, stronger, and wiser than you are. I’m saying You because I obviously got over this issue years ago. 

(Ahem)

Truthfully, I am amazed at how often I get caught in this same old routine. I find myself thinking I am the World’s Foremost Expert in one thing or another, only to be put to the test and discover that I am not as smart as I would like to think I am. If you have ever experienced similar struggles, take heart. You and I are not the only ones. 

King Josiah was a good king. If he had stayed the course he was on, things would have been much better for his people for much longer. Having won repeatedly in small battles and big issues, he thought he was at a point where he could not fail. The end of his story reminds us that failure is always an option. 

Pride takes us places we should not go and leads us into decisions with consequences we cannot overcome. Failure is inevitable and quite possibly tragic when we allow arrogance to enhance our self-importance. It killed King Josiah, the last good king of Judah. It sent the nation into a death spiral from which they could not recover. The awful end was only a matter of time in coming. 

It didn’t have to be that way. 

Looking at my day, I see two important meetings. Since I am confined to home for another three weeks, one of those meetings is online, and the other involves a key leader visiting our home. 

* How do I keep from overstating my importance? 
* How do I keep my ego from auto-inflating? 
* How do I avoid saying more than I know and committing to more than I can accomplish?
* How do I listen more than I talk? 

Questions like these would have served me well across the years. I’m counting on them serving me well today. Feel free to borrow them when you are preparing for significant conversations and amazing opportunities. 

One other note from this Bible story may well come in handy. God spoke to Josiah in a manner he was not expecting. Because what God was doing was new and different, Josiah didn’t listen or obey. It cost him his life. When God says, “Turn away,” turn away. Josiah didn’t turn away. Instead, he had to be taken away. 

What a sobering reality. 

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I will focus on hearing and obeying God no matter who he uses to speak to me so that I can go the right way and not get carried away. 

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Our Father, please give me ears to hear what you are saying to me today. Please give me a willing and obedient heart to follow wherever you lead. Give me the wisdom to turn away so that I don’t get carried away. Remind me as often as necessary not to get too big for my britches. Amen.