LOST - An Island Query

Who among us has watched a show like LOST or read a book like Lord of the Flies and didn't start imagining what we would have done in similar circumstances? Well, I hope that some other people do, because I do it all the time. I start imagining how I would present my brilliant survival plan, work it out, and lead the group to first survive and then thrive in our exile. (I hope no one imagines their leadership ending in failure and death...that would be pretty depressing.)

One of my favorite things about LOST is that there are people in the group who, either most of the time or on occasions, simply refuse to be led. They don't have a problem with you, or your plan, or with you being the leader - they just don't want a leader at all. This came as a real shock to me when I realized it...what do you do with people like that? For LOST at least, it seems like the answer is, well, to do nothing with them. They actually let adults make their own choices and suffer their own consequences. Those who are current with the show (those who aren't may want to skip this...) know that Michael has just returned from his search for Walt, and I really liked how they let the guy go. They did what they could, but at the end of the day it was his choice and he made it. It also appears that he is suffering for it, but we'll have to find out tomorrow.

Just letting people do what they wanted...maybe that's a luxury that a smaller group, like Anna Lucia's, wouldn't have, or one in desperate circumstances, but it certainly seems to be a better way. I see it often in myself and others who are in leadership positions that we feel like we know better in all kinds of things that really aren't our business at all. Our advice is always oh so relevant, so helpful, how could anyone not take it? At best the offended person tells us nicely to mind our own business, at worst we either cripple the person to make their own decisions if this happens often or we lose the relationship.

True authority only functions within its proper boundries, and Christians especially would do well to wish our brothers and sisters well and leave them to make their own decisions except when we're asked for counsel.