Pedestal vs Platform

We’re living in a precarious day where pedestals and platforms are being confused. So what’s the difference?

A pedestal is where you display something that you want to be seen. It’s all about the object on display. Pedestals are intended to be in a fixed place for people to come and see and admire.

A platform is where a message is broadcast. It’s all about the communication being given. Platforms are intended to be placed where the crowd will gather.

With our lives, we either have a pedestal or a platform.

We are either sitting on a pedestal, displaying what we want people to see, trying to get them to come to us to approve and appease or …

We are standing on a platform, speaking the message we have been given, going to the people who need to hear.

Pedestals create language like promotion, demotion, titles, step up, and step down. Platforms convey language like serve, lead, create, team, and synergy.

Pedestals come out of the search for identity. Platforms flow from identity.

Pedestals can be set up in a matter of minutes. Platforms take years to build.

Pedestals are knocked down by the masses. Platforms are moved for the people.

Man creates pedestals. God gives platforms.

Pharaoh had a pedestal. Moses had a platform.

Saul had a platform that turned into a pedestal. David had a pedestal that turned into a platform.

The Pharisees had a pedestal. Jesus had a platform.

Which are you building?

Which do you have?

The great news is, if at any point, we realize we have a pedestal, God allows us to tear it down while we await the platform only He can give.

“Don’t let people do that to you, put you on a pedestal like that. You all have a single Teacher, and you are all classmates. Don’t set people up as experts over your life, letting them tell you what to do. Save that authority for God; let him tell you what to do. No one else should carry the title of ‘Father’; you have only one Father, and he’s in heaven. And don’t let people maneuver you into taking charge of them. There is only one Life-Leader for you and them—Christ. —Matthew 23:8-10 MSG, bold added

Now Solomon had made a bronze platform 7 1⁄2 feet long, 7 1⁄2 feet wide, and 4 1⁄2 feet high and had placed it at the center of the Temple’s outer courtyard. He stood on the platform, and then he knelt in front of the entire community of Israel and lifted his hands toward heaven. —2 Chronicles 6:13 NLT, bold added