Leaders Don’t Steal Glory
Strike Two and You’re Out
God takes glory-stealers seriously. In Numbers 20, the Scriptures record a story of how one of the OT’s greatest leaders fell victim to the temptation of stolen glory.
In a place called Meribah Kadesh, the people of Israel were thirsty, grumbling. “Why have you made us come to this evil place . . . there is no water to drink?” Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before God and God told them to speak to the rock and tell it to yield its water. Moses and Aaron gathered the grumbling Israelites before the rock, in the eyes of all Israel.
Instead of speaking to the rock, Moses yelled at the grumblers, “Hear now, you rebels: Shall we bring water for you out of this rock?”
Moses then lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water came out abundantly and miraculously. The rebellious people drank their full, their complaints silenced in the slaking of their thirst.
Moses and Aaron left satisfied, watching even the cattle getting their full.
But as they walked back to the tent of the meeting, the glory of the Lord appeared again to Moses and Aaron.
The one-way conversation went something like this:
“I told you,” said the Lord, “to speak to the rock. But you struck it—twice even.
So strike two and you two are out.
Why did you not believe me?
Why did you not uphold me as holy?
Did you bring water from the rock? No, I did.
And I wanted to show myself to the people of Israel—for their good. And for your good.
But you stole my glory.
You shall not bring the people into the land.”
Beware of Stolen Glory
One of the greatest temptations we face as leaders is “stealing glory we don’t deserve.” Taking credit for the things we do–especially the miraculous things that happen when we lead in the power of God’s spirit.
The best leaders don’t take credit; they give credit. But at the heart of our rebellion, we steal glory from God and from others.
Such glory stealing is fueled by an angelic rebellion in eternity past. Before time itself, Satan attempted to steal God’s glory when he said: “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” John Milton captured the temptation every leader faces–the desire to reign in glory. In his rebellion, Satan said to God: “It’s better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.”
Finding our Identity in all the Wrong Places
We begin our time in Gettysburg wrestling with this longing for glory. Henri Nouwen’s “In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership” prepares us to see the thousands of monuments commemorating the deeds of men.
We need Nouwen’s reminders as we occasionally seek the shade of the giants of men, looking up at them astride their bronze horses, pointing the way. We stop and talk of their leadership. Reynolds, Buford, Lee, Hancock, Howard, Lincoln…
Great men for sure. But as we unpack their stories, we discover they too can fall victim to stolen glory.
They are not much different than Moses and Aaron in mistakingly claiming: “Hear, You people. See how WE bring forth water from this rock for you!”
Over and over they were asking:
What will history think of me?
What will the newspapers write?
What is my reputation in the army?
How do I define myself as a leader?
Stolen Glory is both Vertical and Horizontal
As leaders, we face two particular temptations in this desire to reign—one vertical, the other horizontal.
First, like Moses and Aaron at Meribah Kadesh, we attempt to steal glory from the God who made us.
The temptation is vertical; we rob God of His glory. We were created to be a mirror reflecting the glory of God. Instead, we turn the mirror toward us—admiring like Narcissus our own reflection.
Second, we attempt to steal glory from others—at its worst, from those we lead. This temptation is horizontal. We fail to honor the sacrifices of others and “claim” their sacrifices as our own.
If you recall, Nouwen’s solution is the same for both temptations–a Gospel-rooted Identity
We must have an identity rooted in God’s unconditional affirmation. As Nouwen reminds us, our identity must rest in the gospel affirmation: “You are my beloved son and daughter in whom I am well-pleased.”
Nouwen warns us that the enemy always wants us to find our identity elsewhere. Henri Nouwen suggests these mistaken identities come from defining ourselves as: “I am what I do; I am what I control and have power over; I am what others say about me.”
A Gospel-rooted identity, however, enables perhaps the greatest of all leadership qualities: humility. A proper humility rooted in our identity as God’s beloved delivers from both the vertical and horizontal leanings of this temptation to steal glory.
Paul David Tripp’s warning illustrates how easily we fall into this temptation.
”Somewhere along the way in ministry, too many pastors [and leaders] have forgotten who they are. . . I have been there and at times fall into being there again, and when I am there, I need to be rescued from me. When you are too much in awe of you, you set up to be a self-righteous, controlling, overconfident, judgmental, unfalteringly opinionated, ecclesiastical autocrat, unwittingly building a kingdom whose throne will be inhabited by you, no matter how much you are able to convince yourself that you do it all for the glory of God.”
Two Tests for a Humility That Never Steals Glory .
Again the behavior of men on the battlefield can be a lens to see how we do this in our leadership.
First, the Best Leaders Don’t Blame Others.
One of my heroes at Gettysburg is Oliver Otis Howard, an abolitionist from Maine, who had had a radical conversion to Christ in 1857. He was called the Christian General, both respected for his personal qualities and his courage in battle. He’d lost an arm in the Peninsula Campaign leading his men from the front. Known to pray amid the fight with the men dying around him, Howard still fell victim to this temptation of blaming others for our failures.
At Gettysburg, he led the 11th Corps into Gettysburg around noon and assumed over-all command of the Union forces on the field.
It happened that most of his 11th Corps regiments were Germans. At Chancellorsville, his “German” Corps were surprised by Stonewall Jackson’s flanking movement and had broken first. Howard was blamed at first, but he deflected the blame by putting it upon his “flying Dutchmen.” When told by other commanders that he should shoot the cowards, Howard complained. “I’d have to shoot them all—from senior commander to private. The Germans won’t fight.”
History repeated itself. At Gettysburg, when his overly extended 11th Corps broke north of town around 4 pm on July 1st, Howard would accuse the 1st Corps of breaking first. When asked by Commanding General Meade what happened, Howard said: “Doubleday broke first.”
Sadly that wasn’t true.
The right flank of his 11th Corps on Barlow’s Knoll had been surprised by John Gordon’s Georgians and broke first. And when the 11th Corps began its retreat, Doubleday had no choice but to order his 1st Corps back to Cemetery Hill. Unfortunately, hearing only Howard’s accusations, Meade replaced Doubleday as 1st Corps Commander immediately. Doubleday had had his best day of leadership on July 1st, managing the 1st Corps with great skill. Doubleday never forgave Howard.
So the first test of true humility is not blaming others. Leaders do this by taking extreme ownership For everything in their world.
In their excellent book, Extreme Ownership, Jocko Willink and Lief Babin argue that all leadership begins with taking extreme ownership:
Leaders must own everything in their world. There is no one else to blame.
A true leader, they argue, takes 100% ownership of everything in his domain, including the outcome and everything that affects it. This is the most fundamental building block of leadership that cuts across all other principles. It applies to leadership at any level, in any organization. When something goes wrong, a true leader doesn’t find excuses or blame others. He puts aside his ego, takes full responsibility for the outcome, and reviews what he must do differently as a leader to create success.
Second, The Best Leaders Don’t Steal the Flags that Others have Won. The second test of humility is not taking credit for what others have done.
Norman Hall was livid. On July 3rd, just as Confederates under George Pickett had pierced the Union position on Cemetery Ridge, he ordered his brigade to face right and charge into the Confederate flank. With other reinforcements joining them, they surrounded the Confederates who had broken thru. His losses were heavy, but the enemy’s column threw down their arms or were taken prisoners of war. Other broke and fled in great disorder.
Twenty Confederate battle-flags were captured by the men of his brigade and the other regiments who’d joined in his charge. The fruits of their bloody labor held high in their hands.
One of his soldiers, a Private William Deming of the 7th Michigan captured the 18th Virginia flag from rebel color-bearer during the fight. He carried the flag with his brigade into the charge on the Confederate flank. To keep up the fight, Deming laid the flag down next to him so he might load his weapon. After the battle was over, a Union colonel from some other regiment — name unknown — rode up to Deming, menacing him with his saber. He demanded the prized colors from the private. Deming, hesitant to give up prize, only let it go when the Colonel threatened to cut him down if he didn’t.
The Colonel stole the private’s glory.
Hall soon learned of several other cases where “Union officers of high rank stole or took by threat of violence the flags captured by the brave soldiers who had rushed forward and honestly captured them from the enemy.”
Hall speculated that these Union officers planned to turn in the flags and claim they had been taken by their commands—even though they were not within 100 yards of the point of attack.
Hall wrote up in his report to senior commanders that “Death is too light a punishment for such as dastardly offense.”
As leaders, we can’t steal glory from those we lead. Nothing discourages more.
1 Peter 5 describes shepherds who modeled the Chief Shepherd in their humility. These leaders were to care for their flock “not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples for the flock.”
To steal glory is to win shameful gain.
What’s amazing about Peter’s admonition is that when we lead in humility—
not blaming others but honoring them,
owning everything in our world,
refusing to grab glory for ourselves,
we get glory in the end.
Peter writes: And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.
Peter had learned what he heard from Jesus. “The path to glory comes when we lose our lives for others, when we serve others first and when we take up the mantle of slaves, willing to wash others’ feet.”
And so, as we resist the temptation to steal glory from God and others, we get glory in the end.
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Oliver Otis Howard, in founding Howard University after the Civil War, received the following letter from a Dr Purvis — one of the first African-American physicians trained in a college setting. He writes to Howard thanking him for his help, describing Howard’s humility and character
I trust time will so far set all things right that we may again have you among us to guide our Institution out of the trough of the Sea in which it is now rolling & tumbling into the position where she can stand & ride triumphantly the bellows of hate that will constantly raise & swell before it. Until that time comes we shall accomplish but little. Our first mate may possibly do well, but our bank wants a captain whose head is clear, who possesses an unbiased soul, free from selfishness, who is willing to lend his best energies towards making the charge a success, whose thoughts are not upon himself, but upon the thing that that he is to lift up to be looked upon with pride by his countrymen.
PS. — Still upacking the depths of this quote, send out by my daughter Jody.
“People ask me if all the love I unwittingly get is flattering to me. I have to say, I’m much more pleased when people love what I love than love me.” (Richard Rohr)
