Through the lens of Man
Balaam — the donkey and the unwilling blessing
There is a quiet humbling in Numbers 22 for any man in leadership. The donkey saw before Balaam did.
The prophet was the leader. The donkey was the beast of burden. And yet the most overlooked creature in the scene was the one with eyes for what was actually happening. The leader was blind.
Most men I know who have failed in leadership had someone in their life trying to tell them. A wife. A friend. A junior staff member. A kid. The voice was small. The position of the speaker was lower. And the leader couldn’t hear it. By the time he saw the angel with the drawn sword, his foot was already crushed.
The Father gives sight to the people we are tempted to overlook. Listen to the people lower than you in the structure of your life. The donkey is not just the joke of the story. She is the warning.
One small thing today: identify one person under you in the structure of your life — a junior teammate, a child, a spouse, a friend who tends to defer — who has been trying to tell you something. Listen. The Father may be using them as the donkey.