For the past several years, the network C-SPAN has assembled 91 eminent historians to determine who has been the most effective American president. Called the Presidential Historians Survey, it ranks each of the 46 men who have occupied the highest office in our country by how well they performed against a variety of factors, including vision, crisis leadership, and moral authority. Since the survey began, Abraham Lincoln (our 16th President) always ranks at the top. And James Buchanan (our 15ht President) always ranks somewhere near the bottom. While Mr. Buchanan has consistently earned a poor or the poorest ranking, he is facing some intense competition from a very recent occupant of the office.

To be ranked last on such a distinguished list is a dubious distinction. Alas, to be ranked last on any list is a sad commentary. How would you feel if someone asked one of the people whom you dated to rank their boyfriends or girlfriends by friendliness, style and attractiveness, and you were ranked last? How would you feel if someone asked your Boss to rank his or her team members by loyalty, skill-set and attitude, and you were ranked last? How would feel if someone asked your parents to rank their children by their potential, maturity and appreciation, and you were ranked last? Being ranked last on any list is a dubious distinction. Being ranked last on any list is a sad commentary.

Well there was a man named Ahab who ranks last on the list of the Kings of Israel that is given to us in the Scriptures. We are informed that 43 men presided over the affairs of the nation of Israel prior to its destruction first by the Assyrian and then by the Babylonian empires. The Bible ranks these men by a single metric: whether or not they obeyed God’s commandments. Of those men, the name Ahab has earned the dubious distinction of being one of, if not the worst in the class. Here is the judgement of the scriptures on his leadership in 1 Kings 21:25:

But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the LORD, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up

Ouch.

It is instructive that the historian tells us that part of what made Ahab so bad was the influence of his wife, the notorious Jezebel. I should hasten to add that the scripture attributes her nefarious influence neither to her gender, nor to her nationality, but to her religion. Jezebel believed in her God more than Ahab believed in his. And it was the influence her false religion that caused Ahab to stumble. I absolutely love the metaphor that the historian employs to describe her influence: Jezebel stirred him up. If Ahab was the punch, Jezebel was the spoon.

Our spoon is a metaphor for our ability to chose, our ability to decide, our ability to think for ourselves, make decisions for ourselves, and create a life based on intention, deliberation and design. To relinquish that incredible gift will cause you to fall to the bottom of the rankings.

Based on the various snippets we are given of the interactions between Jezebel and Ahab, it becomes distressingly clear how the historian arrived at his judgement. At decisive moments in his life and in the life of the nation, Ahab abdicated his responsibilities as King. He refused to make hard decisions, complained incessantly about the pressures of his position, and failed to articulate or enforce godly standards. To borrow an expression I recently read, Ahab was “good hearted but weak-willed.” His failure to act opened the door for Jezebel to act. So much of what happened to Ahab and to Israel under Ahab’s leadership did not occur by design, but it occurred by default.

My mother used to always warn me to never lose by default. A default judgment is what the legal courts issue if one of the parties to a case fails to appear. If you don’t show up, you have to accept whatever verdict is given. And if we don’t show up when it counts and where it matters, we have to accept whatever happens.

Here’s the sad truth: there are a whole lot of people who don’t want us to show up when it counts and where it matters.. They see our value even when we don’t. And they want us to be so trusting, dependent, oblivious or irresponsible that we outsource crucial decisions. Jezebel didn’t take Ahab’s spoon. The evidence suggests that he gave it to her.

Question: Who have you given your spoon to?

Who are you allowing to think for you? Choose for you? Show up for you? Are you living your life by design or by default?

Ahab gave Jezebel his spoon. And by surrendering his spoon, he surrendered his manhood; he surrendered his kingship; he surrendered his legacy; and perhaps most importantly, he surrendered the blessings and favor of God.

Too much is at stake for such a surrender.

Get your spoon back.