Humble return to the top

2 Samuel 19: ¹⁴ He won over the hearts of the men of Judah so that they were all of one mind. They sent word to the king, “Return, you and all your men.” ¹⁵ Then the king returned and went as far as the Jordan.

Now the men of Judah had come to Gilgal to go out and meet the king and bring him across the Jordan. ¹⁶ Shimei son of Gera, the Benjamite from Bahurim, hurried down with the men of Judah to meet King David. 

¹⁸ They crossed at the ford to take the king’s household over and to do whatever he wished.

When Shimei son of Gera crossed the Jordan, he fell prostrate before the king ¹⁹ and said to him, “May my lord not hold me guilty. Do not remember how your servant did wrong on the day my lord the king left Jerusalem. May the king put it out of his mind. ²⁰ For I your servant know that I have sinned, but today I have come here as the first from the tribes of Joseph to come down and meet my lord the king.”

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“You have full autonomy” is what they said to me when I was appointed head of a division. “You mean I can do what I please?” I thought to myself. I became super creative and non-apologetic for developing things without the parent departments’ blessing. In fact I may have said some choice words to a few people who got in my way.

A couple of years later the parent department reined us back in. Those who I said “Get out of my face,” where now in my face and in power. I had to eat my words.

• Shimei cursed as David fell which reminds me of my noisy rise in the past.
• Shimei gloated as David fell which reminds me of my thinking “No one can touch me.”
• Shimei threw rocks at David which reminds me of my words as I rose to the top.

When the king returned, Shimei remembered how he mistreated David. I too remember the return to the department. It was an extremely humbling experience. I was told to lay low for about a year in order to repair the negative perception of me. It took five.

• GOD says to me “You shall have no other gods before ME” which lets me know to exalt HIM and not myself.
• GOD says to me “Fear ME, not humans” which makes me give HIM credit for my rise.
• GOD says to me “Do not boast” which means my rise must be humble and not noisy.

It is GOD who raises me up and it is HIM who deserves praise no matter where HE has me.

• Are you cursing someone?
• Do you think your poisonous words will help your rise?
• Can you turn your poison into praise for what GOD is doing?
• Will you add the spirit of appreciation to your thoughts today?