The Classic Mistake

By Mark Batterson, Christian Post Guest Columnist Monday, May 24, 2010

For better or for worse, your destiny is determined by decisions. And it's often big decisions that seem like little decisions, but destiny can turn on a dime.

The decision in I Kings 12:8 was "for worse." It says: "Rehoboam abandoned the counsel that the old men gave him and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him."

Who are you listening to?

I think Rehoboam made the classic mistake many young leaders make. He surrounded himself with "yes men." By surrounding himself with the young men he grew up with he limited his input to those who only knew what he knew. They had only experienced what he experienced. It's so important that you have some people who can speak into your life from a different vantage point. It's so important that you have counselors who have been there and done that. It's so important that you respect those who have made more trips around the sun.

We only make a few major decisions in our lives. We spend the rest of our lives managing those major decisions. This one was catastrophic. This little decision to listen to the wrong voices split the kingdom in two! It led to civil war. And it all sprang from a young leader's arrogance.

I think it's so important that we listen to the voice of innovation but we also need to listen to the voice of wisdom. It's not either/or. It's both/and.