Sep 10 2008
Herod’s Coming. Hide Your Heart!
Yesterday my wife made a personal commitment to carve time out of her busy life for purely creative and much-need enjoyments.
When she shared this with a wise young man, he said, “Good. But be prepared.”
“Prepared for what?” she asked.
“For Herod,” he said. “Whenever you give birth to something good in your life, Herod will always come to kill it.”
It took me a moment to grasp his meaning. When I did, it was one of those rare and wonderful “Ah-ha!” moments.
In the Bible, King Herod of Judea discovered that a new “king” had been born. Afraid that this infant would take his throne, but not knowing the baby’s identity, Herod ordered the murder of all the children in the region two years old and younger.
But the infant king escaped. God had warned his father, Joseph, to leave by night and take his family to Egypt, far from King Herod’s maddened reach. Only after the tyrant had died and the danger had passed did Joseph get the go-ahead to return home with Jesus.
Make no mistake: when you “give birth” to something new and good in your life – something that can save you and elevate you – be certain that Herod will hear of your plan and come to kill it.
What form will the Herod in your life take? Opposition from a spouse, parent or friend? Discouragement? A health problem that weakens you? An addiction that steals your time and energy? A new responsibility someone wants to throw on you? An opportunity you can’t pass up?
Whatever Herod is for you, he will come determined to put to the sword that bright new thing in your life that you know will save you.
How can you protect it? Only you will know the answer to that, and it may not come until the killer is at the doorstep. But it will come. The question is, will you be willing to do what it takes to keep it alive? Joseph left home at a moment’s notice and hid his little family in a foreign land for a few years. Will the price you will have to pay be as high?
A month before my wife made her personal commitment, I made one. And Herod has come.
My commitment involved turning down freelance writing assignments in order to devote myself to my own writing projects. I told myself I would keep only two clients: two companies that are easy to work with and whose projects have always been relatively infrequent, small and have had comfortable deadlines. In short, these are clients I’ve always been able to fit into the cracks of my schedule.
I made the commitment, and I went for it. I told all my other clients that I had “retired.” That very week, one of the two clients I kept began throwing a steady stream of work at me. Today, over a month later, I have been too busy (as always) to pursue my own writing projects.
Herod has won … at least for now. But he won’t win forever. I may have to take a metaphorical trip to Egypt soon.
What will you do?
Thanks, that’s a great analogy. Maybe the modern day equivalent of a trip to Egypt is unplugging the Internet connection. Seems to me that a lot of Herod’s sneak in that way.
In your situation, maybe outside help could handle some of your Herods while you nurture the baby.
Now I’m off to deal with a bunch of Herods I hadn’t noticed until this post…
Boy, does Herod come. Two months ago I started an agency and started booking orders for some important raw materials. Everything was going alright when I decided to offer a wider range and introduced a new item that needed to be imported from overseas. We booked the orders and we received a due date that has long gone and today I have lost the old customer for the old range as well as the new item. People make commitments that they simply do not give importance to.
My Herod is leftover construction dust. We bought a brand new home and not only did I (we) have to clean the old digs (a rental), but now I have to clean a bigger place before we can really ‘move in’. I thought life would be easier here, but, nope. No grass, just dirt. Dirt in my cupboards, dirt on the closet doors, dirt even on my freshly painted walls. Do you know how many Swiffer thingys I’ve gone through and paper towels? I shall be on the look-out next time for Herod and hopefully be mentally prepared if not otherwise.
Excellent metaphor! My herod tends to be myself, unfortunately. I often have to push my lazy tendencies to the side to get my writing done. Coupled with all the random emergencies of day to day life, I get much less work done than I like. Thanks for this great post!
Kimberlee