Eternal Loyalty
Part 5 in a series on Power Dynamics in Leadership
Forever. Eternity. These are words that are hard to really get our time-bound minds around because, while we are designed to live for eternity with God, we are finite. Your life and mine have a set beginning, before which we did not exist.
The next name for God on our list is El Olam, or “Eternal God.” Again, we’re looking at a title that others, under the inspiration of the Spirit, use to refer to God Himself, but not a self-referential name And while some of the titles describe the way God acts, this one describes what He is. God is eternal. He is everlasting. It’s His nature. He has no beginning, nor does He have an end.
The Old Testament Scriptures also uses Olam (Eternal) to modify other nouns in describing God. He is an eternal Rock (Isaiah 26:4). He is an everlasting Light (Isaiah 60:19). An everlasting King (Jeremiah 10:10). Everlasting describes when God is, how He exists outside time itself, as well as being present within time.
The root for the word Olam means to be hidden or concealed. That root sets the vibe (as my kids say) of this name: eternal is beyond what we can see in our finite humanness. When John says in reference to Jesus that “in the beginning was the Word” he’s talking about before the Word was used to create all things. Jesus was there before time began.
It’s mind boggling. You and I exist inside of time and we measure almost everything with respect to passing hours, days, seasons and years. I celebrated my 30th wedding anniversary recently. Thirty years spent with my life partner. I have been breathing for over 55 years. I have lived in Indianapolis for just over three years and in the place we currently live for 8 months. I just spent 5 days at a family celebration and coming home took four hours of driving, and I monitored my speed measured in miles per hour. My heart-rate is reported in beats per minute. My children and grandchildren were born in specific years and have ages noting how long they have taken breath under the sun.
This is our reality and a part of our nature as captives in time and space. God doesn’t share that reality; it exists inside and outside of Him while He is eternal and everlasting. And when Jesus left the earth and commissioned the Church, He promised to be “with us until the end of all days.” As long as time exists and we exist in it, He will never leave us nor abandon us.
You may have a human relationship that mirrors that. It may be a parent or friend or sibling who just is always there for you no matter what. Even that, we know, is only a shadow of the present, loyal, EVERLASTING love of God in Jesus Christ.
The word “loyalty” comes up with respect to employment sometimes. If we go back a couple of generations, the typical worker worked at one company, or perhaps two, for her or his entire career. Certainly some people still stick with the same employer, but it’s not the norm anymore. Staying with one company just isn’t very common these days. Generation Y, more usually called Millennials, hold 8 or more jobs on average by age 34. When we contrast that to previous generations, the word “loyalty” gets thrown down, usually as a way of defaming the Y’s and their life patterns.
However, it is wrong to hold loyalty to work as preeminent. An employee has other priorities that trump the employment relationship. They have the responsibility to develop and use their own unique gifts and plan their career trajectory for maximum impact. They may have a family they are responsible to care for and provide for well.
Most people that worked for 40 years at the same place didn’t do it out of a sense of loyalty so much as they made decisions that were beneficial, such as when there was a pension plan to vest. There were incentives, and still are at some firms, to stay longer and remain in one place. But there were also risks where entire companies went out of business with bankrupt pension funds and people worked 30 years and got no retirement benefit whatsoever from their employers!
When we talk about loyalty as leaders, the only place it really matters is your loyalty to those under your care. They don’t belong to you, but have been entrusted to you for a time. For some it may be decades that you get to work together; for others it may be a few months. How you treat them is what makes a difference.
Recently, I got to reconnect with a few people face to face who used to report to me. Some of them still work in the same organization where we worked together and some do not. It would be a mistake to say that any particular person who took a role elsewhere for their own reasons was disloyal to the prior organization. Slanderous even! And yet you hear that vocabulary used from leaders who look at every departure as a burned bridge.
Don’t do that. Don’t be the person who confuses loyalty with employment. There is no one who reported to me that I wouldn’t help in some way today. And I do sometimes have those opportunities, probably a couple each year. If I heard of one who had become unemployed, I’d reach out immediately with a transition coaching package free of charge in order to continue to invest in them.
Of course, I am not limitless like God is! I have to manage my time and energy to care well for any things that take precedence. However, my care for those that I have been privileged to work with and serve does not end abruptly simply because our relationship has changed.
Jesus is loyal to us without exception. No one can take you from His flock or harm you. He will be there for you, even knowing that you haven’t been or won’t be there for Him in meaningful ways. And even when you outright deny Him, as Peter did, He comes to you to patiently restore you to the good works He’s prepared for you.
Don’t weaponize a false loyalty, demanding fealty among the people you are serving as a leader. Be loyal and present for each of them, whether they deserve it in the moment or not, because that is the way Jesus cares for you and me.