Hubris and Humility

I took another walk around the neighborhood and realized that on this earth as it is—

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"The race is not always to the swift,

Nor the battle to the strong,

Nor satisfaction to the wise,

Nor riches to the smart,

Nor grace to the learned.

Sooner or later bad luck hits us all."

I spent the past two days having the privilege of being an observer during an assessment of a group of potential missional pastors. I'm a huge advocate for modern assessment technology and techniques. Our world has long endured religious men and women who have been permitted to focus their personal pathology into proselytizing the lonely and lost. It is well we have taken a more active attitude to screening people more thoroughly before sending them out with little supervision or support. 

But in observing the assessments I was struck by the challenge of how we can screen effectively for candidates who are being marked to do something totally outside the box. Finding well-adjusted individuals who have the strange mix of Hubris and Humility that is the hallmark of an entrepreneurial church planter is a challenge. 


One truly needs an indecent dose of personal Hubris to be the kind of person who enters into an alienated society to plant a Church or Mission platform. 

As one of those with that indecent dose of Hubris, I'm well aware of how skewed my personality really is. Whenever they have tested me I've always been proven to be totally unbalanced. It is what makes me so successful. In many ways to be successful at what I do I need to be at least a little "freakish."

To be able to set forth a compelling vision that brings a diverse and divided community together to work passionately and sacrificially for the good of antagonistic outsiders is not something we'd expect everyone to be able to successfully achieve. Add to that the valuable ability to create sustainable small business practices, include the ability to competently handle marketing and budgeting and then throw in a natural gift to handle Theology and Philosophy as well as healthy dose of pulp psychology and you have a denizen from "Jason and the Argonauts" in your sights. 

The job description demands Hubris, yet it is also clear this level of self-assurance, combined with minimal supervision and support, can be a recipe for disaster. 

My own life is replete with examples of running headlong into the wall of Humility at full speed. It makes for spectacular social theater. But it was also heartbreakingly painful for me and those who loved and trusted me. I'm left wondering how to help this new generation of Hubris-laden leaders find a less painful and public exposure to the needed experience with Humility that will make them leaders worthy of a weary world's trust. 
Is it possible or even permissible to socially engineer the "bad luck" these guys need to tattoo Humility indelibly into their personality? 
When someone is the fastest, strongest, wisest, best-educated, smartest person in the room, perhaps the only thing that might save them is the knowledge that into every life a lot of rain must fall! 

Bad Luck indeed!

What then? We need Heroes of mythical proportions to do the job we want done, yet we can't afford giant infants with super powers running amok wearing our brand! 

Unfortunately the only cure I've ever seen that is effective for turning Hubris-driven egotists into safe, healthy servants to society is a few harsh lessons in Humility. This usually entails several rather messy and bloody failures to instill the needed humility. 

I had the profound privilege of being an observer at the assessment of some phenomenally gifted young men and women this weekend. Yet I found it hard to sleep last night knowing how painful their futures might be if we fail to find a more humane way to tattoo the Humility they so desperately need to be balanced.