OPTIONS

From the day I started my first summer job outside my parents' hardware store until my current days, I have heard plenty of complaints about "the boss". I have never been the boss myself, but I have decades of experience being under someone else's authority.

During my first foray into youth ministry, I found myself under the authority of a truly despicable pastor. He was mean, foul-mouthed, negative, and - according to his own adult daughter - crazy. He was a mess.

But I came to understand an important lesson from him. 

In a position where I was unhappy with my boss, I had three options:

1) Suck it up and carry on doing my best possible work.

2) Bad-mouth the boss, undercut his authority often, and maybe even work to get him removed from his position of authority. 

3) Quit.

I went with Option #1 for a while, until things got truly terrible. 

And I don't know if I was specifically aware of Hebrews 13:17 at the time, but I instinctively knew that Option #2 was not only wrong, it had the potential to make my own life more miserable as well. 

I still strongly believe that, at least for the Christian, #2 is not a valid option. And yet it is the path most commonly taken, even over relatively mild disagreements or imagined offenses. (Certainly, there are people in places of authority who should be removed, and this particular pastor probably qualified, but it was not my place to do that. Thankfully, most of us are not dealing with those types of people in authority over us.)

In the end, I went with Option #3 and quit. As much as I loved the people of that church, it was the right move. (I was the first of several staff members to quit in the following months.)

Later I worked under a rather paranoid and petty pastor at another church. He threatened to take away my house if he discovered me badmouthing him to other people within the church. He need not have worried. I had already learned my lesson by then. 

I'm not saying that I am perfect at this, but this is my heart's orientation towards any authority I am under.