I was personally requested to write another tonight. This one's for Jody.. but hopefully the rest of you will like it too :)
On Halloween, I volunteered at our church's event for children, as I have been doing for almost 10 years now. Right when I got there, the dean of the Bible school pulled me into her office for a few minutes to give me back some assignments from last year (teacher took awhile to mark them :S)
Anyways, the stuff received was from our course in Authority. The ending assignment was a paper on said subject. I took mine home after the event, and reread it - and you know what? It might be wrong to say, but I was impressed with myself. I really think I did a good job on that paper.. and I got 90% on it, so I'm gonna go out on a limb and say maybe the instructor did too.
I also thought it tied in a little with my last blog. So, I'm going to copy and paste the first half for you to read (second half is personal example, which I would share but I think it would make this way too long and although it's good, it's not necessary to add for my point)
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Authority
Everyone agrees that authority, both as a cultural idea and in physical examples, exists. Most would also say that they’ve encountered both good and bad examples of authority. However,for us to further explain this idea of good and bad authority, we must fully understand exactly what authority is.
http://www.dictionary.com/ defines authority in this way: “The power to determine, adjudicate, or otherwise settle issues or disputes; jurisdiction; the right to control, command, or determine.” Wikipedia states that the word authority is derived from the Latin word “auctoritas”, which means “invention, advice, opinion, nfluence, or commands,” which come from an “auctor” – or in English - a master, leader, or author. Authority, therefore, is in essence the ability of one person (a superior) to impose his will and direction on another (an inferior). This usually involves force of arms, called structural authority or compulsion, or by force ofargument, called sapiential authority or persuasion.
Authority is not the same as power, but these terms are often exchanged freely for each other, especially in common areas like policing and government. However, power is force, compelling someone to do something that, without the abusive power of force, he or she wouldn’t or couldn’t do.
To better understand this idea, consider a very common illustration : a parent and a child. When the child respects his parent’s wishes and therefore does what the parent asks him to do, he is respecting the authority his parent possesses. However, let’s say the child is of a bit younger age, and today happens to have missed his nap. He is tired, upset, and refuses to put on his jacket as requested. At this point, the parent moves past his or her authority and into the medium of power, and dresses the child themselves. Although it may have been necessary to use power (perhaps it was cold outside), the parent essentially forced the child to do what he did not want to do himself. This is the difference between authority and power – one asks for obedience, and the other requires it.
Of course, this is a situation where the use of power would be considered appropriate by most. Like every other situation in this world, the opposite could be and sometimes is true. A common example that many people are familiar with is Adolph Hitler’s Nazi regime. Some are not aware of the fact that Adolph Hitler actually had legitimate authority as the German potentate. He was appointed to the German government as Chancellor in 1933, and then Fuhrer in 1934. However, Hitler, as we all know, abused his authority and used his power as Germany’s ruler to decimate Europe in a personal quest for absolute power over the earth and all within it.
Sometimes the people or groups wielding the power and authority aren’t the same. For instance, the Boston Tea Party was a rebellion of the citizens of Boston, Massachusetts against the British government in 1773. In that situation, the authority was held by Great Britain… but the power was in the hands of the Bostonians themselves. Authority also has a time frame, and it doesn’t always have to be a person, specifically – it can be nearly anything that requires you to do or be something. It can last forever (like God’s authority, or the authority of food and water over your body), many years (a king’s authority lasts as long as his life does), a few months (school asts ten months out of the year), or even two minutes – such as a traffic light.
Authority is a touchy reality and one that is subject to much debate and disagreement, simply because of what it stands for. People always have resisted and always will resist someone or something domineering over them, whether it’s legimate or not. This means that people in positions of authority must be very careful in how they deal with their respective areas of leadership.
This course on authority has shown me how I should uphold and respect all authority, whether I consider it good, bad, right, wrong, or otherwise. What I’ve discovered and deciphered out of everything I’ve learned in life until this point about the subject of authority = obedience is a journey, and we all take it.
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The reason I thought this tied in to the last post is probably obvious. We will all, at some point in our lives, be placed in authority over someone. Maybe more than one someone. And we will all, likewise, be placed in a situation where we have to submit. The key is, how will you handle it? Nobody likes to be bossed around, but sometimes it's necessary. If you can't follow, are you sure you can lead? Humility goes a long way. Often, we say we can do it better.. but maybe, just maybe, that's why we're not doing it.
So here's the question. When you're in a leadership position, will you move into the medium of power by using force to accomplish your will? Or will you stay stay in an authoritative and respective mode? When you're in a situation where you have to obey, will you do so without question or complaint?
The greatest leaders in the world are also good followers. What are you?
“If you wish to know what a man is, place him in authority.”
~Yugoslavian Proverb~
Thought wielding
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