Pondering Proverbs – Leadership (11)

 

 

“In the light of a king’s face is life, and his favor is like a cloud with the spring rain.” Proverbs 16:15.

 

Verse 15 is a contrast with verse 14. I used to ask myself, when I was in business and traveling from location to location, “Are people glad to see me or do they hate to see me coming and are they glad when I leave? Am I building people up or am I tearing them down?”

 

I was once based in the regional office of a firm; we seldom had visits from the owners and top executives of our company, but when we did I observed behavior that puzzled me then and puzzles me now. These men and women could visit our office and leave without saying “Hello” to the few people who worked there. They would usually come to our office, meet with whomever they needed to meet with, and then leave without any interaction whatsoever with the rest of us – and at no time were there ever more than eight of us working in the office. They would not even look into our individual offices and say, “Hi, how are you today?”

 

This was not only rude, it was poor leadership, for as Proverbs 16:15 tells us, “In the light of a king’s face is life.” When we are in authority and leadership we have the opportunity to pay attention to others and to make their day just a little bit better with recognition and inquiry into their wellbeing.

 

The image of “the light of the king’s face” is powerful in a world in which we often do not make eye contact, often do not really look others in the face nor turn our faces toward them, and often do not really listen. How often have we seen folks out for a meal who are interacting with cell phones rather than those at the table?

 

I live in a community in which people often walk, there is little car traffic and walking is generally a safe exercise. There are two kinds of walkers, those who acknowledge you and make eye contact and then those who don’t - who walk right by you as if you are not there, as if you are invisible. This is particularly strange in that virtually all walkers are residents of our community, that is, we are neighbors.

 

I have often thought of listening to music when I walk, but I don’t because I don’t want to pass people by without being open to opportunities to meet them, talk with them, and pray with them.

 

Of course, the king’s face that matters most is that of our Lord Jesus Christ, the light that His face gives us is indeed life, it is refreshing as the rain. If His face gives us light and life, then our faces ought to give others light and life – for He is the Vine and we are the branches and His life flows through us (John 15:1 – 11).

 

Our hope and expectation is that we will behold the face of our God in righteousness (Ps. 17:15), and indeed our Lord says to us, “Seek My face,” and our hearts respond, “Your face, O LORD, I shall seek” (Ps. 27:8).

 

Consider these prayers:

 

“Make Your face to shine upon Your servant; save me in Your lovingkindness” (Ps. 31:16).

 

“God be gracious to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us” (Ps. 67:1).

 

“O God, restore us and cause Your face to shine upon us, and we will be saved” (Ps. 80:3, 7, 19).

 

God not only answered the prayers of the people who prayed them in the Psalms, but He answered them in fulness in sending His Son, our Lord Jesus, in the Incarnation and into our lives:

 

“For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” (Gal. 4:6).

 

As wonderful as it is to see the face of Christ now, we shall see Him in greater fulness on that great Day. “There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bondservants will serve Him; they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads.” (Rev. 22:3 – 4).

 

John tells us, concerning this promise and expectation that we will see His face:

 

“Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” 1 John 3:2 – 3).

 

My point is that God’s Face matters, and that if God’s Face matters then our faces matter, for we, in Christ, are His sons and daughters. If we are entrusted with positions of leadership and authority then our faces especially matter; but since all of God’s daughters and sons have been given authority we can also say that all of us have faces that matter. What do people see when they see our faces? Do they even see our faces, or do we hide our faces?

 

Are we sending the light and warmth of the sun on others? Are we bestowing refreshing rain? That is, are we showing the light and life of our Father to others? For dear friends, as our Father is to others, so we in Christ are to be to others. (Mt. 5:13 – 16; 43 – 48). We are to live as the mature children of our Father, and this is particularly expressed in our dealings with others.

 

The fact that some people will choose not to receive what we have to give in Christ is not something we can control, but we can choose whether to fulfill our calling in Christ to be His Presence wherever we are (by His grace). Few people may be thankful for the sun or the rain of refreshing, but our Father continues to bestow these blessings on humanity.

 

Every person we will ever meet matters to God; do they matter to us?

 

Do the faces of others matter, or do we walk by others as if they all wear the same face?

 

O Lord Jesus, help us to allow your Face to shine through our faces, that others may come to know Your love for them, that others may come to know You.