Here's one personal example of Brinkley's idea.
After my parents died, I was given the job as the executor of their will and trustee for their estate. I'm one of eleven children (nine surviving), and in the middle of the pack -- not one of the oldest kids, so I didn't have a natural 'seniority' in the family pecking order.
To put it bluntly, the job of executor sucks. You have a legal duty to carry out certain responsibilities. You have a moral obligation to be as fair as possible. You know the personal conversations you had with your dying parents about how they'd like things handled that are not specifically spelled out in the legal documents, and need to take those into consideration as long as they don't contradict the legal aspects of the will.
And then, you have all the heirs who want their portion of the estate as soon as possible. Most also want you to do the job they way THEY would do it ... and yet those same siblings would not have touched the job with a 10 foot pole because the responsibility it carries is fraught with potholes in which to twist one's ankles.
In our family, I would not necessarily hear complaints directly from the person complaining. Sometimes I'd get a partial story second hand ... like a bad game of "Telephone" where a message is passed from person to person, and the person at the end of the line (me!) often gets a garbled message quite different from what the originator had said.
One of those messages I received said, "She has a God Complex." Meaning ... because I had the legal authority, I was making arbitrary decisions and feeling all high and mighty because, for once, I had a power none of my siblings could take away from me.
That characterization could not have been further from the truth. Yes, I had the legal authority and power and obligation. But I also needed to try and have the wisdom of Solomon. Because I was new to the job, I undoubtedly made some missteps, but it was never out of malice. I agonized over some decisions because I was trying to find the best outcome possible, and second-guessing my reasoning and judgments.
To soothe my own soul and try not to feel so put-upon and misunderstood, I had to take some of those verbal rocks thrown at me and lay a firm foundation.
So ... God Complex.
What might that mean, in a different light?
I gave it some consideration, and then wrote down some adjectives of how I view God. Following my heart and experience, this is what God looks like to me:
- Loving and Giving
- Responsible and Freeing
- Comforter and Friend
- Decision Maker
- Creative Solutions
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