Who Is Going To Tell Him?
by Tim Keller, Lead Pastor
Recently the news reported that Britain’s 97 year old Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, was involved in a car accident near his country estate in Norfolk. Apparently, he pulled his Land Rover in front of a Kia driven by a 28 year-old woman who had her 9 month-old baby in a car seat in the back. No one was seriously injured, although a passenger in the woman’s car suffered a broken wrist.
I must admit that when I saw the story on the news my first question was, “Why is a 97 year-old Prince driving his own car?”
Then it struck me.
When you are the Duke of Edinburgh and the spouse of the Queen of England, and you want to drive your car, who exactly is going to tell you that you can’t? There is only one person more powerful than you in the entire nation and she likely doesn’t want to deal with the turmoil of insisting you give up your license.
So, in the absence of anyone with authority speaking into his driving, he likely just continued on because he wanted to.
Believe it or not our lives can often reflect the Prince’s story. The one thing that every bad decision ever made has in common is that, at the time, the person who made it didn’t believe it to be a bad decision. Without input from an outside source we are capable of making some pretty horrible decisions.
When we’re young we have lots of people who speak into our lives with authority. Parents, grandparents, teachers, coaches, and even employers have the ability to inform our decision making process. As we age, the number of people who voluntarily speak truth, hard truth sometimes, into our lives diminishes. It’s not uncommon to reach a point where there isn’t anyone who willingly, and with authority speaks into our lives about the key aspects of our existence.
Thus, it becomes easy to forge our way down a path of making questionable choices about everything from our relationship with God to the amount of time we spend watching television. Without an outside voice we have effectively set ourselves up for failure.
When’s the last time a human being asked you a question about…
- Your lack of a healthy diet
- Your lack of balance between work and family
- Your tendency to be negative
- Your increasing tendency to overeat
- The crudeness of your language
- Your selfishness
- Your choice not to attend worship consistently
- Your volatile temper
- Your habit of being overly critical about people and situations
These questions will become increasingly rare in our livers unless one thing happens: we invite them. That’s right, if someone is going to tell us that at 97 years old, and with a herd of chauffeurs standing by, we should probably consider handing in our keys. Without being given passport to ask the hard questions we’ll go through the latter stages of our lives minus the voice of reason we need so desperately, but it will only come when we invite it.
Imagine the harm that could have taken place in Prince Philip’s accident. Imagine the response if someone would have questioned his driving himself without having the Prince’s blessing to do so. Imagine if the Prince had invited a close friend to speak into his life about his driving skills.
Now, imagine you and I doing the same thing.
I have a coach with whom I meet monthly. I have granted him permission to speak into the deep issues of my life and at times I have bristled at his honesty and love blended together. Yet, I am a better man for submitting myself to his voice and I’m grateful for him.
May you find your coach.
