OnFire #79 Reputation Management

Daniel 5:11 "There is a man in your kingdom who has the spirit of the holy gods in him."

While King Belshazzar hosted a party, a hand appeared and wrote an obscure message on the wall: "Counted, Counted, Weighed and Divided." When no one could interpret the writing, the queen suggested Daniel because of his reputation. Daniel told him the meaning - that he was arrogant and would not humble himself before God, so he would be called to reckoning. That night he lost his life. This account has become a figure of speech. To see the "handwriting on the wall" is to anticipate coming misfortune.

The queen suggested Daniel because she knew he had "the spirit of the holy gods in him." I don't think for a moment she fully understood what this meant or who he served. However, she saw within Daniel something she respected and she knew the source was spiritual. This was Daniel's reputation.

Reputation is the "word on the street" about a person, what people generally think about someone. Word on the street was that Daniel was a godly man, full of wisdom and discernment.

To get ready for this OnFire, I did a quick search on the internet about reputation. I found some interesting things. For instance, I discovered that another word for "reputation" is "character." That caught my eye because OnFire is all about faith and character.

I also found a good number of advertising agencies who specialize in "reputation management." They help companies, organizations, politicians and celebrities create images for themselves in the public eye. I can understand why this might be important, but I wonder - how much is real, and how much is created and managed but not really true, or only partly true.

This leads to think. What is my reputation? This concerns me because I hope it is good and godly. If we are followers of Christ, shouldn't people see Christ in us? Shouldn't we develop a reputation as godly people?

More thinking - does my reputation reflect reality, or is it managed to make myself look better than I really am?

I think reputation can only be "managed" in the short term. Either we are or we aren't, and what we are will come out over time. Daniel earned his reputation because people saw the results over time. I think its the same for us. We earn our reputation over time as people see us in action.

I see two goals in this: 1) To have a good and godly reputation, and 2) that it be real, not managed, no hypocrisy.