Enough is not enough

The story of Samuel begins with his mother Hannah and her rivalry with Peninnah the other wife of Elkanah. Hannah was childless and ridiculed by Peninnah. Peninnah was doing her job and bearing children. Elkanah saw Hannah's job as just loving him but she wanted more. She took a risk and, in return for children, dedicated Samuel to work for the community. (I am assuming working for the church is community service.) Peninnah is not mentioned again and the heroine of this episode is Hannah, why? Because she was prepared to do more than just her job, or the job Elkana alloted her. The tale is one of those repetitions of the maxim that, to succeed, you must do more than your job. We all know who Hanna's god was. The god of a business is sales profit and a business will fail if it only just satisfies the current needs of its customers; someone else will give better service, a cheaper price,or a slightly better product and any organisation must be constantly looking for a better way to do things. If your god is promotion, there are other people 'doing their job' and to satisfy your god you need to do more than that. If your god is job satisfaction, just staying in a boring but safe job won't work for you, you need to take a risk.
There is a spin-off in the tale - while Hannah was praying, Eli the priest thought she was drunk - don't judge the book by its cover is what fills the bill there. Don't assume, because the Bible is used by the church,that it has no messages about living, business and personal relationships for others. It is the original self help book.

The 'normal' trap

After Samson the last chapters of the book off Judges mentions that there was no king in Israel and everyone did as they pleased. That situation has been repeated often in the succeeding centuries. Many revolutions have degenerated into petty quarrels among the ‘victors’. The crux being that there is no longer any central authority, or even objective and squabbling becomes the 'normal' relationship. The Israelites had been absorbed with claiming the land they had been promised but when that was done, they lost direction. There are many lessons in the story, personal, relationship wise and for business.

In personal life, it highlights the need for a long term goal, many fail college and university because their goal has been achieved. The idea that they are at college or whatever to learn how to be a doctor, for example, is dampened by the realisation of their short term goal; those who succeed see it only as a stepping stone.

Relationships break down for similar reasons. Great sex, intellectual compatibility, even being a good doubles partner at tennis or golf become ‘normal’ and descend into boredom after a while and it is those who want to share their life experience that make real partners.

In the business sphere, without firm direction the sales manager argues with the production manager, who argues with IR, who argues with PR and energy that should be directed to success is dissipated in internal wrangling.

What is needed is a plan for what happens next; the understanding that the realisation of one goal will open the door to another challenge. Someone who wants to be a foreman for being a foreman rather than to learn how to be a manager, for example, will become bored and useless, unless their life objective lies elsewhere. There is no point in getting into a relationship where the sex is great but the partner is thick as a brick, that’s obvious, but so is a partner who doesn’t share long term goals. Before a business has maximised it's market it must have plans to change direction or be sold.

It is distressing to see how many ignore the lessons of Judges for no better reason than that they are in the Bible. They are not only for the religious but contain the wisdom handed down from antiquity.

One of the people our Sunday School teacher made a hero of, was Samson. Of course, it was war time and there were Nazies to hate but, since then, there have been a number of terrorists/freedom fighter organisations who have made me re-examine the Samson story and the lessons it teaches. When Samson arrived, the Israelites were dominated by the Philistines. Samson grew up, killed thousands with the jaw bone of an ass, married someone from their culture, was betrayed, blinded and took his revenge by pulling down their place of entertainment, thereby killing, not only himself, but more than he had when he was alive. After all that, the Israelites were still dominated by the Philistines. So, apart from the death of many Philistines, what had Samson achieved? It doesn't seem to have been a great deal, so what lessons does the story teach?
Firstly, as has been proved over and over since 1945, killing people solves very little. 
However, these notes are meant to deal with personal and relationship problems and it is necessary to look more closely at the incidents in the story. Samson was betrayed by his wife, a wife he had taken from outside his culture. That's not the same as race or social class, it's the philosophy we live by, how we see our social responsibilities. For a relationship, social, work, or business to work, partners' cultures have to overlap. For some reason, it is better if they have areas of difference that have to be worked on, but the overlap must be considerable or one partner will betray the other.

Then there is the question of revenge. Samson’s efforts may have altered the demographics but each tit following a tat only escalated the confrontation and solved nothing of the general problem of Philistine domination or equality between them and the Israelites. The same applies in relationships. Paying back some slight only encourages another. It’s not good to allow oneself to be trampled on but, ideally, one should leave the other party an honourable way out of a dispute.

Looking forward

When Jephthah led Israel several of the neighbouring rulers claimed back land that the Israelites had captured three hundred years earlier and went to war to reclaim it. After some negotiation, the two went to war and the Israelites won. This sounds like a good historical tale but if we look at it in the way Ancient stories, like Aesop's fables are told there is a good deal more to be learned from the story. The lessons are usually from the losing side, so what does that tell us? The bordering kings had held a grudge for three hundred years and when they wanted it redressed, it reacted badly on them. They would have been better to accept the status quo and get on with life. That lesson applies to most human interaction, individuals, groups and even businesses. Remembering must be for the right reasons. We do not remember Auschwitz for what it did to the Jews, we remember it because all who were involved in it were human beings and it reminds us of the kind of things human beings can do to each other. Using up energy and resources to get back at a rival reduces the energy we have to improve ourselves. If we start from how things were a year ago, we will never progress tomorrow.  There is merit in analysing to prevent future mistakes but analysing the past to apportion blame only keeps opening the wound. There is merit in recalling success to motivate further improvement or mitigate gloom at some reverse, we can be that nation again as the Scots sing, but the starting point of tomorrow is today.

Reminders

One of the things that interrupts the smooth flow of the Israelites taking over everything is their inability to conquer all the tribes in the area and the idea that this was for their own good as it trained those who had never experienced war in its dangers and tactics. For our present generation there are things like the obsession with germs and the belief that children should not be exposed to them, which leads to lower resistance to disease. I think it was in the war of the worlds that the aliens were killed by a common cold virus. Are we in danger of getting to that stage? In the corporate world it is easy for the staff to become complacent in the belief that the company will continue in its current state for ever, ignoring the virile competition of new arrivals in the industry. In these circumstances, as with sports teams, a good helping of competition works wonders.

On a relationship level, complacency, taking a partner or friend for granted, is a death sentence and we need to be remember what it was like before the relationship was established and keep it fresh; recalling why we started the relationship and our joy at that time needs to be relived from time to time. Instead we tend to view the relationship in its current state, forgetting it got that way through our forgetting.  

When we remember on a personal level, it is so easy to forget our successes and see only where we failed.  It’s easy to concentrate on the failures and regrets and forget what we achieved. Many of the regrets people worry about are small and insignificant but they will dismiss successes and times of elation of a similar level as of no account.  The cake that tuned out a success is just as important as the flop but what do we remember? The bus we missed is an event but how often did we catch it? The name we can’t remember is a tragedy but what about the smell of the roses.

It’s in ways like this that the Bible can teach us how to live.

Mergers and marriages

The next part of the Israelite story as they claim Canaan finds a small tribe coming to make peace with them, claiming to be from far off. They are included in the Israelite community as slaves, but are included and not slaughtered like other groups. It’s like the takeover business and a lesson as to how a small organisation might live within a major company by offering to be overtaken rather than wait for a hostile acquisition. In a well-managed takeover, the employees of the smaller company will still have jobs and careers, whereas in a hostile acquisition the anger generated by the resistance of the company taken over means a clear out of staff. How does the lesson apply to relationships? It’s unacceptable that one party in a relationship will become a slave to the other. In fact there should be no stronger and weaker partner and perhaps that is the lesson. If one partner feels inadequate, or is made to feel inadequate, then they will become a slave, losing personality and will, a sorrowful thing to watch. The story deals with two extreme alternatives and ignores the idea of just running away, which, in personal relationships is the best escape from something that is not based on mutual respect.

Samson's hair

I want to look at the Samson story in the Bible and what lessons it has for the reader as far as ordinary life is concerned. I don’t for a minute believe his strength depended on the length of his hair, so there must be some other reason for telling the tale. Samson married someone from a group that was opposed to his own but this isn’t about racial purity but about sensibly having a partner who shares your philosophy in life. That shared ideal applies in all walks of life, marriage, business and social. Then Samson tells Delilah where his strength lies and is betrayed. That’s a warning not to expose your weakest areas to anyone you can’t trust, in fact anyone with an interest in hurting you. Then we have the denouement and Samson takes revenge on his tormentors but kills himself in the process. Taking revenge often has that effect, in personal relationships, in general life and in business. It is always better to look at what is best for you, your relationship, or your business, than how you can damage the opposition.

How to manage a project

When Joshua was faced with attacking Jericho and wasn’t sure what to do, an angel appeared and he talked it over with the angel. He then made his plans, made sure everyone knew what to do and started his campaign. The incident lays down the natural order of dealing with a problem facing a group of even two. First talk, then make sure the plan is understood and agreed on, then get into action.

Compare that with what has happened with Brexit. We were suddenly faced with a plan no one understood and expected to get on with things. We have a plan but it’s not agreed and, when we should be in the action stage, the discussions start. The Bible is not just for Sunday School, it’s self help for everyday and for business and even politics.

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