The event made headlines all across the country. How could something like this happen? 13 people dead, 145 wounded; what went wrong? What I am referring to is the collapse of the I-94 bridge in 2007. Our state was devastated. People marveled at the amount of times they had driven over the bridge, and now it had suddenly fell. This was Minnesota’s third busiest bridge, carrying 140k vehicles every day. Yet due to a design flaw, it came crashing down only 39 years after it’s opening.

The bridge looked fine on the outside. For 39 years it held the daily commute of thousands. But despite its external appearance, the bridge was weakening and eventually self-destructed.

It’s easy to hide what is under the surface, isn’t it? We can easily put on a public image for all to see when things are crumbling on the inside. When that happens—when we self-destruct, it always happens from the inside out. Things were going on within long before they were discernable on the outside. This is often the case leaders—those who have an influence on others. Leaders can start out well, but sometimes can be distracted. Things might look great on the surface level, but it can be easy for anyone who has any sort of influence to stop leading people out of submission to God and begin leading of our pride and self-service.

This was the case for Israel’s new king, Saul. He began being more concerned with his own public image than he was with God, and that became his downfall. As we look at this episode in the of Saul, we learn some valuable lessons about how we can be corrupted by our own desire for influence. And we learn the big idea for today:

Big Idea: Social image without spiritual integrity leads to self-destruction