One of the greatest challenges that anyone who has ever been a leader, teacher, parents, manager or Quality Assurance person can face is the practice of doing what we teach others to do.
Who among us has not ever been in the position where, having provided some kind of guidance or wisdom or direction (or even setting down "the law") has not come to find ourselves confronted by our students, children, employees, or even general passers by with our practice not meeting our preaching?
To be fair, I may be more overly reactive to this than many partially because of my choice of line of work. To be Quality is to have some level of approving things when they go out and being "the authority". But I suspect for every one of these roles, if we are honest, we would confess that at some level we have an underlying thought that we should live up to the things that we teach, train, or advise - and that hopefully we are conscious of the fact when we miss the mark.
Sadly, I am much less good about this than I should be.
It is easy enough for me to rail about the evils of society or bad behaviors or the benefits of good and righteous living. It is a great deal more difficult for me to live these out on a daily basis.
Part of it, I suppose, can be summed up as simply "hypocrisy", and there likely (at least for me) always be an element of that. But I genuinely believe that there is also a significant element of not fully vetting out the implication of my actions to the fullest extent possible.
Take an easy thing: murder. Fairly easy to be against that in real life. But do I truly take Christ's admonition that to hate someone is like the sin of murder (not the physical act, obviously)? And do I find that I derive entertainment from the fictional murder of others (or even just generally violent movies in general)? I do.
And then I start to walk these things out. Lust. Gluttony. Laziness. Charity. Even my practice of Christianity on a daily basis. I can point to Scripture and even suggest things that others should do to live better lives.
But do I do them?
Humility, it seems to me, is being as willing (or even more so) to do what we teach/advise/admonish/command others to do. And, of course, confess our failures and rectify them when they are called out to us.
Humility, it seems to me, is being as willing (or even more so) to do what we teach/advise/admonish/command others to do. And, of course, confess our failures and rectify them when they are called out to us.
There is perhaps no more powerful example than the one who, when a failure is pointed out that has been taught on, humbly confesses they have failed and seeks to do better.
The things I rail about are those that break laws and then I remember just how fast was I driving the last time that chariot broke from the garage?!?
ReplyDeleteNylon12, you and I both. It is both subtle and insidious.
DeleteI appreciated you quality guys after my last employer did away with all the quality people. Afterwards, we became reactionary and I wasted lots of time figuring out why things weren’t fitting/working right instead of improving designs.
ReplyDeleteEd, it is a noble calling - although we often disappear into consideration as "overhead", right until (as you point out) our value is suddenly and usually almost too late, discovered.
DeleteWell said.
ReplyDeleteThank you Sandi.
DeleteIt is that last step, of falling down and then picking something up when you get up that's key.
ReplyDeleteJohn, for me at least it has become something of a daily occurrence.
DeleteGrowing up, I can't tell you how many times I heard my mother say "do as I say, not as I do." I always said I'd never say that to my own children and hopefully I didn't, but I did observe that they learned more by imitation than instruction.
ReplyDeleteI think true Christianity takes the whole concept up a notch because whereas the world focuses on observable behaviors, Christianity focuses on the condition of the heart. Your example of murder is a good one. If I verbalize my hatred of someone to others, I influence how they see that person. In other words, I can murder that person's reputation. I'm not literally killing them, but the damage is often irreparable.
I doubt the humility of doing is easy for any of us. It's a lifelong pursuit with very slow progress.
Leigh, I often worried about doing this with my own children as well. Hopefully I at least managed to show them none of the undesirable traits or behaviors.
DeleteYou have (I think) precisely summarized the challenge of the Gospel and Christianity: the condition of the heart, which is just as (or even more) important than outward behavior. Yes, by all means actual murder is better than "murder by words (and for goodness sakes, do not murder people really!), but that is not a distinction that God looks kindly upon. I suspect when we truly understand that we understand the great gulf that lies between us and God and how truly we need salvation.
In terms of humility being easy for anyone, I do find interesting that even those that are considered humble in their own time comment how much of a struggle it is for them. We only get to see the outer layer; no-one can see the true struggle of the heart.