The Decision

   If you had the opportunity to do a towering amount of good for perhaps millions of people, would you take it? Listen for a moment to what took place at a job interview I attended not so long ago.

   “No, thank you”.

   “Why – doesn’t the date suit you?”

   “No, the date would be fine: it’s just that I don’t think I’d be a good fit for your company”.

   “Why ever not? We receive hundreds of job applications all the time. Most people would give their right arm to be a part of our team”.

   “But that’s exactly the point: you’re not a team. The body language of everyone in this room, indeed the whole atmosphere, speaks of a virtual dictatorship and not even a benevolent one at that. Unless I’m given the opportunity to change things, and change things fast, your type of company is just not for me”.

   “But I said I was open to change, didn’t I?”

   “Indeed you did, but the primary reason I’m here is because the company hasn’t changed at all to speak of in the past five years and it badly needs to do so. You may say you’re willing to accept change but I don’t see you doing it through anyone in this room”.

   “What makes you say that?”

   “The noticeably timid manner in which every member of the board, hardly any of whom spoke at all, gently pushed their pens forward in a neat, straight line to signify their acceptance of my candidature as the company’s – note I didn’t say ‘your’ – managing director. Where were the thoughtful, searching questions, the penetrating analysis of what I have to offer for such a position? There weren’t any”.

   “Go on”.

   “You will realize from the most detailed research I’ve done on your company that I know a very great deal about it. I intentionally set out to find an avowedly Christian organization in your particular field where I felt my qualifications and experience would really add value. Amongst your competitors, your company stood out as having changed the least over the last five years for which your annual report and accounts were available for review. Your reputation is excellent and your earnings record impressive, but your growth is beginning to slow. I wanted to find out why for myself and in so doing, see if there wasn’t an opportunity for me to effect change to the mutual benefit of us all”.

   “And how would you bring about that change?”

   “On the principle of 360 degree feedback, I would start by inviting every single person in the company to write me a memo, as short or as long as they wished, under the heading, ‘If I were the newly appointed managing director of this company, this is what I would do’. I would ask for a response within six days because I think having a deadline concentrates the mind wonderfully".

   “I’ll agree to that: I’ll issue a memo to the staff right away”.

   “No, sir - you’re missing the point. I’ll issue the memo, only it won’t be a memo: it’ll be an invitation, and it’ll be to ‘all our people’, not ‘the staff’. Responses will come direct to me; I’ll review and prioritize them and give you my recommendations. If you accept them, and give me the necessary authority to implement them, I’ll count it a privilege to join the company; if not, I won’t”.

   “I’ll agree to that”.

   “Thank you, but you’re only one member of the board, albeit the president of the company. If you want to start as you mean to continue, you’ll put my idea to the board in a secret ballot which I will conduct here and now and abide by their decision. Thus will you have given us a prompt and practical demonstration of your genuine willingness to accept change”.

   “I’ll agree to that”.

   The board voted unanimously for the invitation to go out to everyone in the company and by the end of the week I had over a thousand replies. It was a Herculean task to go through each one, but to be fair, there was a very great similarity between them all, so, to begin with, prioritizing them and coming up with recommendations was neither particularly difficult nor time-consuming. Once and once only was my attention drawn to a particular response to my invitation: someone called Ophelia had signed it and this is what it said:

   If I were the newly appointed managing director of this company I would adopt the following as:

My Bill of Rights

with acknowledgements to the Holy Word of God

   The very best thing anyone can do is be happy in their work; to achieve this I’m going to ask God to ensure whatever I say and whatever I think is pleasing to Him.

   I will start my work by keeping still and telling myself that God is in control. If I feel overwhelmed, I will remind myself that Jesus invited me to come to Him if I felt I had too much to do and He would give me rest.

   I will not allow myself to forget it was God Himself who said He would teach me and guide me, would give me advice and watch over me. I have only to commit my work to Him for my plans to be established and for Him to show me what to do if I would but trust in Him with all my heart and not rely on my own insight.

   I will acknowledge God’s presence, do the very best work I can, and allow Him to transform me into a new person by changing the way I think. Thus will I know what His plans are for me and how good, pleasing and perfect is His will.

   I will be eager to present myself to God in the very best light, not to be a disappointment to Him in any way, and to deal only in the truth.

   I will at all times be strong and very courageous, never allowing myself to be frightened or dismayed, albeit operating at all times within the law and the dictates of honorable society. Everything I do will be for the glory of God alone, while all my endeavors will be proper and in order, for I know full well that all things work together for good for those who love God.

   I will wait for the Lord and keep to His way, remembering that all things are possible with Him. I will seek, knowing that I will find; also that those who seek the Lord will lack nothing of value, since God does not withhold anything from those who walk in righteousness. If I lack wisdom, I will ask God for it, firmly believing He is near to all who call on Him in truth, for He is worthy to be praised.

   I will continue to ask God to lead me and guide me for His name’s sake; to make His ways known to me; to show me the paths He would have me follow, and to lead me in the truth, that I may walk in it unwaveringly.

   I will ask God to teach me to do His will for He is my God, and to let His good spirit lead me in the straight and narrow way. Specifically, I will ask God to teach me the way of His commandments, and these I will observe in all that I think and do and say.

   I will ask God for understanding that I may adhere to His law with my whole heart.

   I will ask God to search me; to know my heart; to put me to the test; know my thoughts, and allow integrity and right living to uphold me, for I wait for God alone.

   I will tell myself that it is God who gives me strength, who keeps me from harm, and who will be with me always, even to the end of the world.

   Ophelia was in charge of special projects, which I knew from my review of the company’s report and accounts had been the biggest revenue earner during the past five years. I had wanted to meet her on that count alone, but now I had another, even more compelling reason to do so. She turned out to be one of the most God-fearing people I had ever met, especially in the secular world.

   She began by telling me that Nehemiah was one of her truly great heroes of the Bible on account of the superb leadership he must have displayed in overseeing the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem. This was achieved in just fifty-two days after the wall had been broken down and its gates destroyed by fire over one hundred years earlier. A total of thirty-nine teams had done the actual rebuilding work, from Eliashib to the goldsmiths and merchants, suggesting that Nehemiah was superb at delegation. This was something we all needed to be, said Ophelia, if we were to complete major projects on time, within budget and within scope.

   Perhaps, she continued, Nehemiah had got his inspiration from Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian. Seeing the magnitude of the task that confronted Moses in judging the people of Israel from morning to evening, his father-in-law had suggested to Moses that he look for able, God-fearing, and trustworthy men, those who spurn corruption, and appoint them as judges over the people. Such men could bring the important cases to Moses, but decide the minor ones themselves. Thus would a major burden be lifted from Moses and the people would go home peacefully, knowing they had had a good hearing.

   Nehemiah was a wonderfully upright man, continued Ophelia warmly. He would not allow himself to be distracted from ‘doing a great work’, and when urged to take refuge in the temple because some evil people sought to take his life, he replied, “Should a man like me run away? I will not go in. Would a man like me go into the temple to save his life?”

   “The Bible does not tell us how Nehemiah set about deciding what needed to be done and how, but speaking for myself”, Ophelia went on, “I like to begin by inviting as many interested parties as possible to a brainstorming session at which we seek to answer these four questions:

   “What is the problem?

   “What are the possible causes of the problem?

   “What are the possible solutions to the problem?

   “What is the best solution?

   “These sessions usually end up being highly charged affairs as ideas are thrown out at will. I tell attendees in advance there is no such thing as a dumb question and no discussion or debate will be entertained on any ideas presented, all of which are noted at breakneck speed on flip charts. The result is a free flow of ideas in rapid succession that builds excitement, innovative thinking and, as often as not, really practical suggestions on how to proceed.

   “But as the facilitator of these sessions, I’m looking for more than this. What I’m really seeking to identify are three wise men – or women – preferably with a genuine desire or interest in making the project a success. In all my years of experience, it is wisdom beyond all other considerations that brings success to a project - not experience, not position, not length of service, or anything else.

   “Why three wise men or women? Well, again, there’s the Biblical precedent of the three wise man who brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the infant Jesus, gifts that were rare, precious and expensive. Three is also the minimum number needed for a clear decision, outside of a dictatorship which, in my view, is no way to manage a project. More than three can be counterproductive for a number of reasons”.

   With time for one more question before I had to leave, I asked Ophelia which was her most successful project. She thought for a while and then said, “The one that was also my biggest failure”.

   She went on to explain that, a few months ago, she had been asked to take on a project in an overseas country that was economically deprived, was enduring civil strife, and suffering from a medical epidemic. There were no internal resources to manage the project, but born of earnest prayer and fasting, just as Nehemiah had done, came the idea to think, not about the three wisest people she knew, but, fascinatingly, the three wisest people she didn’t know. She immediately thought of luminaries who had won the Nobel Prize for economics, peace and medicine respectively.

   With her usual determination, Ophelia set about finding three such ‘wisest of the wise’ as she called them; before long she had found them, interested them most keenly in the project and, subject, as always, to the approval of the president of the company, secured their willingness to be part of the project team. Sadly, the president hadn’t approved – said it would be too high a profile for the company to adopt.

   “For the first time since being put in charge of special projects, I felt dismayed”, said Ophelia. “The towering amount of good we could have done for perhaps millions of people in that country was not to be underestimated, especially when I had such a brilliant team ready to take the helm”. Quoting scripture, Ophelia added, “This is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to take our sins upon Himself. Beloved, if God loved us all that much, we ought also to love one another”.

   So saying, Ophelia was quietly wistful for a time, which gave me an idea. I asked if I might read a copy of her report. She agreed readily enough, and in parting said, again from scripture, “Grace, mercy and peace be with you from God the Father and from his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in truth and love”.

   Ophelia’s report was brilliant as I knew it would be: at the same time it put me on the horns of a dilemma.

   By now I had every confidence I could bring about the changes in the company I felt were greatly needed; in a word, replacing authoritarian rule with corporate democracy, thus building on the talents of the people as opposed to stifling them. I saw the opportunity as a secure, high profile position that would cement the future of the organization and the jobs of the thousand or so people who worked for it. It promised to be a most satisfying appointment: indeed the very one for which I had applied.

   At the same time, if I were to invite Ophelia and the three Nobel laureates to join me in an entirely new enterprise, this being the idea that had occurred to me earlier, the future would be most uncertain. However, we stood to do – how had Ophelia put it? – “a towering amount of good for perhaps millions of people”.

   I contrasted my dilemma with two sayings of Jesus in the Bible. Our Savior’s parable of the talents ends with the words, “To those who have much, even more will be given and they will be most richly blessed”. On another occasion, Lord Jesus had said to His disciples simply but with such feeling, “Feed my sheep”.

   It was by no means easy deciding which course of action to take: join the company, or start an entirely new enterprise. And yet it was a decision I was expected to make, along with my recommendations, at nine o’ clock the following morning.

   I entered the boardroom at the appointed hour. What decision do you think I made? What would yours have been?

For further reading: Ecclesiastes 3:22; Psalms 19:14, 46:10; Matthew 11:28; Psalms 32:8; Proverbs 16:3, 3:5-6, 37:3; Romans 12:2; 2 Timothy 2:15; Joshua 1:9; 1 Peter 2:13; 1 Corinthians 10:31; Colossians 3:23; 1 Corinthians 14:48; Romans 8:28; Psalms 32:34, 27:14; Mark 10:27; Matthew 7:7; Psalms 34:10, 84:11; Luke 11:9; James 1:5; Psalms 145:18, 18:3, 31:3, 25:4, 25:5, 86:11, 27:11, 143:10, 119:33-35, 139:23, 25:21, 18:32; Nehemiah 6:15, 1:3, 3; Exodus 18:13; Matthew 25:14-30; John 21:17