A Year Of Humility (XXVI): Adhering To The Written Word

 In my industry of Biopharmaceutical/Medical Devices, we spend a great deal of time with documents.

The guiding documents for all of this industry is, of course, government regulations which specify what needs to be in place for the design, manufacture, testing, and distribution of drugs and devices,  how one conducts trials in order verify safety and effectiveness, and how one registers and continues to update the regulatory authorities about the products.  These regulations, promulgated by national and supranational government bodies, are the basis for how our business runs.

These regulations in turn get translated into documents at companies.  The most recognized form of document - familiar in other industries as well - is the Standard Operating Procedure or SOP, The SOP tells a reader the who, what, where, how, and occasionally the why of what they are doing.  The SOP is often supported by other documents - forms, logs, guidances, reference documents - all which support the the translation of the requirements into greater detail.

The purpose of the SOP is found, of course, in that first word:  "Standard".  The idea is that no matter who does a thing, every person will do the thing the same way.  This makes sense when you think about in my industry:  a small variation can have a greater or lesser impact on the final product,  In the Biopharmaceutical/Medical Device industry, "variation" is not a welcome thing.  

My challenge is that sometimes rather than take the time to look at the SOP, I think I know what it says or means and, rather than taking the time to actually look up the document, I tend to just act.

One of the things that we spend endless amounts of time doing in my line of work, Quality, is reminding people that they should always - always - be operating from the document directly rather than from what they remember; so in that sense in writing this I write this to myself: "Remove the log from your own eye" and so forth.  But it does point to a larger issue.

In my industry, ultimately one has to be humble enough to take the time to open and read the documents as written, rather than try and remember or just "wing it".  It is a tacit admission that no matter how much I "know" something, I am to be guided by the words on the page, not the words I think I remember on the page.

The fact that I have the tendency in all of my life, including in my relationship with God, should not be that surprising then.

In the case of God's word, it is slightly different.  More often than not I "know" where the information is and even what it says to a greater or lesser extent.  Much less often am I willing to humble myself to the text to do what it says.

In my mind of course, it is easy enough to justify:  This was written for a different time.  This was written to a different set of circumstances.  This was intended for someone else - those "unbelievers" - and not for me.  It is surprising to what lengths I will go in order to justify why I do not need to bring myself in line with the Christian's version of The Great SOP.

Ultimately of course, they remain the sorts of excuses that people have made throughout the ages about why The Word of God is not relevant and why they have a carve-out from its requirements.  The difficulty though, is that much like the regulations and SOPS that support them in my industry, there is no "getting out" of such things.  

I can take my time to "consult the document" now and do what it says, or go off on my own - and risk the consequences of decisions based on what I think I remember or doing what I think is best, not what is required.