Knowing Merrilee

The Ego Trap Truth be told, out of this whole book, this is probably the easiest chapter to write. Not necessarily because it comes easy, but because when it comes to ego, it doesn’t take being around Merrilee for very long before you see, will see, or have seen, someone’s ego completely ruin the relationship. Most of the people who have met her that I’ve encountered are wise not to presuppose meeting her is like meeting anyone else. You make the acquaintance but what you expect beyond that point is, or should be, different. There was a gentleman once who was rather prominent in the public speaking arena. I’m not sure what he did exactly, but I remember the invitation distinctly. He was going to offer services to help her with some technology associated with her show, and she agreed to let him. At first she had given him a set of instructions, criteria, and limits she wanted to stay within in order to give the man boundaries, but allow him to be creative and unfettered in his imaginative design for an app for The Merrilee Show. At first, things seemed to be going alright. They met, had a talk about what would be done, and things that would be put in place for the project, and the man even offered to have her accompany him at an event to promote the show, the technology, and her brand to other people who could invest, promote, and advertise for her. Merrilee paid him for the work. And then he dropped the ball. Merrilee gave him instructions on how she wanted the app to be done and he didn’t create the app to her wishes. Who accepts payment to do work, and then doesn’t do the work? Wow, right? You’d think it appalling to treat someone so dismissively who’s so open and caring to everyone, and I wish I could say this was the only instance. It’s not. The ego has many people thinking very highly of themselves in such a way that when presented with he details about helping someone else, if they don’t seem important enough, then effort falls by the wayside to deliver on what is promised. Rom. 12:3 “For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. 4 For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.” But here was a man in the possession of a business and the capability to see her vision, deliver as promised, and reap the rewards, who decided to do something else. It’s almost surreal how Merilee finds a way to support people in whatever they’re doing from buying girl scout cookies, to supporting business ventures, to interviewing people to being present to promote others in her industry. Wherever people decide to meet her, if they can live up to the standard of unconditional love, and show that they want to make the world better in any particular way, then she’s happy to get involved.