The
first thing I must share is a story in today’s devotional by Jimmy
Carter. He tells a story that I think has wide application and is
definitely something we need to hear when tolerance is just
another name for “I don’t give a damn!” Here’s the
story.
A
small company was contemplating a new health-insurance plan.
Everyone in the company supported it, except one man, named Rudolph.
This was a problem because everybody needed to accept the plan for it
to move forward. So every company employee wrote a message to
Rudolph asking him to change his mind. He refused. Then they
invited a special salesman to come and explain the benefits to
Rudolph, but still Rudolph said no. Finally his boss called him in
and said, “Either you approve the plan or your job is terminated.”
Immediately Rudolph agreed. Later, when asked what changed his
mind, he replied, “Well, the boss was the first one to explain it
to me clearly.”
(Through
the Year with Jimmy Carter, page 168).
In
Sunday school today Kunta Kinte Luellan celebrated the blessings that
daily fill his life. He exhorted us to have patience and count our
blessings. This trenchant challenge by Kunta brings home the central
point that by fixating too narrowly on a goal—(an anticipated
outcome currently presumed to eventuate in a blessing) and thus
holding in abeyance any and all other blessings—robs us of
serendipitous developments born of a receptive spirit within a
multifarious universe. In this sense open-ended creativity proves to
be essential for a happy, abundant, and blessed life.
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