Do I feel like I’m entitled to a platform or voice, or is it a responsibility that sobers me?
Especially if we’re minorities or have felt like we haven’t had a voice for most of our lives, we can become intoxicated with the power we can have once we start to use our voice. If we’ve fought for the opportunity to speak or represent something, we can feel a sense of entitlement for our platform. But we MUST NEVER let that happen! As our voice or influence grows stronger, we must be:
- more (not less) aware of our own sinfulness and greed
- more (not less) willing to give away any power we might have, in empowering others, and
- more (not less) proactive in being interested in other people rather than ourselves only
That’s because it will only get harder. If we’re drawing people to ourselves or find that people are coming to us, we better be taking EXTRA care for who we are and what we represent. Influence is something to steward, and it will test us to the core of our integrity. It should. Are you thinking about that? Are you ready? Because as I said before, you have a platform and a voice to steward (especially if you’re a leader), whether you know it or not!
Am I wrestling with what it means to be a spokesperson or to have a platform? Am I seeking help and prayer?
To some degree, I think it’s healthy to always wrestle a bit with these issues. From what I’ve seen of others, it’s usually not good to become too comfortable. One thing we can always do is to ask for help and prayer. I believe God will honor that.
How freely do I give in addition to receiving? Am I willing to serve and platform, as much as I enjoy being platformed by others?
On a practical level, I fight against self-absorption by trying to maintain a healthy balance between how much I focus on myself and how much I focus on others online. That means reading and commenting on other people’s blogs as much as I do on my own. Or working to platform somebody else’s work as much as my own projects (it’s helped for me to work on a resource site and staff community Web site where highlighting others is the point). Also, it’s helped for me to collaborate: half of the talks I’ve given and major articles I’ve written have been with other people. This is actually an intentional value that author Henri Nouwen applies in his book In the Name of Jesus — for ministers to speak in pairs rather than alone when in front of an audience — to avoid the pitfalls of a “temptation to be spectacular.” What a great way to counteract self-absorption!
So to conclude, it’s not simple to navigate the ethics of self, in an ever-changing world.
And self-absorption is a subtle and tempting foe that can lure us from different angles. We can mistake it for false humility, a boldness that stems from entitlement and ego, or other manifestations. But through it all, we’ll be headed in the right direction as long as we’re wrestling with these questions and don’t minimize the power each of us has. Because we all have a platform, it’s not a matter of whether or not we have a voice. It’s a matter of what we choose to do with it.
