A Different Drummer?

When I was in sales, my manager convinced me to use an

“application specific license” to in effect, give a massive price break to a company in order to close a sale. The problem was, I knew that corporate designed this license for a VERY limited use of our software—far below what my customer wanted to do with it.

I went along with it, closed the deal, but never got over the guilt. In fact, my boss’s boss tried to get me to increase the payment later by “expanding” their use of the product. The problem was, they had already extended it to run their entire operation.

Be sure your sin will find you out. I didn’t get fired, but always felt that this was a “blotch” on my record….

Since that time, I've learned to "march to the beat of a different drummer." That is, to stand on my own feet and not let people in authority or people I wanted to impress, dictate my actions. I'm not saying I'm perfect at it, by any means. Still, I have become less sensitive to "pleasing men."

But there's another "ditch" to fall in here--an opposite extreme that I've watched many succumb to and suffer from. Being a man-pleaser is certainly a problem, but so is being a self-pleaser. In other words, the idea that we should just "do our own thing" is just as dangerous and damaging.

The reason we assume that its good to pursue whatever is on our hearts is that we assume that our hearts are basically good. Scripture would suggest otherwise (see Jer. 17:9). My heart will desire sin, and that leads to death (Rom. 3:23, 6:23, etc.). The answer is to learn to pursue God and all that He has planned for our lives. THIS will result in true success (Eccl. 12:13).

So, as believers, we truly DO "march to the beat of a different drummer." That drummer however, must be God.

To that end,

Pastor Joel