John 6:19 "They saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were frightened. But he said to them, 'It is I; do not be afraid'."
My neighbour Sherine and I talked about my SALT story's moral from my last blog entry - look out for Sarahs and get rid of Lots and Terahs in your lives! And whilst we chatted along I said, "I'm wondering if the Bible could be used as management handbook", and Sherine suggested I should try and find out. And that's what I am doing, finding out about it.
Last Sunday's Gospel reading was about 2 miracles - feeding the multitude and Jesus walking on water. Quite a challenge, to squeeze any management wisdom out of those 2 stories. Maybe I am getting an idea whilst thinking and writing about it...
Jesus and his disciples were at the Sea of Galilee; and after having performed quite a few miracles before, I think mainly healing stuff, he wasn't alone anymore, but followed by thousands of people. Jesus looked back and must have said something like: "Jesus Christ! How on earth shall we feed them?" His disciple Philip, probably shaking his head in disbelief, replied that even half a year's wages wouldn't feed them. They were basically in trouble.
Disciple Andrew saw a little boy pass by who carried something like a picnic basket, and inside he spotted 5 barley loaves and 2 fish, probably a week's food supply for his family. Andrew told Jesus about the boy's basket. What is not known from the Gospel is how they managed to obtain the little boy's family's food. Did they kidnap the boy, threaten him to beat him up if he doesn't surrender, steal it from him and beat him up, mesmerize the poor sod, etc... All of this is not known. Also, what happened to the boy after he was "relieved" from carrying his nutritious burden? Did his mother get a hissy fit when he got home empty handed, did the father spank him for having to starve now? All of that is in a biblical grey zone. But then, what's more important, feeding a boy and his family for a week or giving 5000 fans a snack?
Back to Jesus: Once he heard about the picnic basket he probably thought, "okay, it's probably time for another miracle." They "obtained" the food and miraculously managed to feed Christ's 5000 strong fanclub. Hooray, done! Afterwards, Jesus told his disciples to "gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost" and they did and managed to fill further 12 baskets. The multitude saw this and said, "This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world."
A little afterthought: I just hope the little boy got one of those twelve baskets, even though it would mean those were just leftovers.
Jesus knew that after feeding the crowd they wanted to "take him by force to make him king" (of course, who else would miraculously feed them all the time?). It probably daunted him that feeding them wasn't such a good idea because he raised unnecessary expectations. The Bible now says, "he withdrew again to the mountains by himself". How he managed to get out of this situation, I have no idea. Maybe it was one of those "Scottie, beam me up" moments that he just disappeared or that he miraculously made them fall asleep so he could sneak out. This is unknown.
What's known though is, in the evening after it got dark, the disciples climbed onto a boat trying to cross the lake back home to Capernaum. A storm came up and it got pretty scary whilst rowing on the lake. Jesus was still in the mountains and probably just wanted to enjoy some "me time" but him being who he was knew that his disciples were in danger: "Can't I just leave them alone for one evening without them getting into trouble?" he must have thought, and super powers as he possessed he transposed himself from wherever he was in the mountains right onto the lake on which he walked towards the boat. They were terrified, but he said to them: "It is I, do not be afraid". Of course he saved their lives, hopefully telling them off for being stupid. And yet another miracle was performed on that day. Story over.
Can I draw any wisdom out of this for a coaching session or management training? It's difficult. And whilst wondering and pondering, my thoughts are suddenly evolving around whether Jesus was a good manager himself and what would I have told him in a coaching session.
Of course, for this, one would need to assume that Jesus was more of a human being without adding too much of the divinity factor. It's sometimes bad enough to coach humans, but coaching the divine, I have no idea how successful I or anyone else would be.
In a coaching session I'd probably discuss his business of performing miracles whilst on his ministry on Earth. What kind of miracles he produces, how "fruitful" they are, why he is doing them and whether they fulfill their purpose. I'd probably categorise his miracles into "healing miracles" and "others". The first are probably easy to explain, the why and how, but the latter need a deeper insight into the matter and probably a one-by-one explanation. An Excel miracle list would be of help.
For his feeding the 5000 miracle I'd ask and discuss some of the following questions and matters:
- Why did you want to feed them?
- Did you think they would starve if you hadn't done so?
- What consequences did you expect from feeding them?
- What other consequences did you expect if you hadn't fed them?
- Why did you know they wanted to make you their king?
- Why didn't you just go for it and become their king?
- Why did you feed them after all? What are the pros and cons of your actions?
- Did you explain to your disciples why you fed all those people?
- And if, did they understand and learn from this?
- How did you deal with the little boy?
- Did you steal his food and how did it feel?
- How did you justify your action towards the boy and his family?
And similar questions about the walking on water: Why did you do that? Could you have prevented this situation by better communicating to your disciples not to use a boat at night? Was it necessary to walk on water or could you not just stop the winds from blowing, etc?
Of course, I cannot answer any of those questions. I am neither a theologian, nor have I had a chat with Jesus about it; anything else would be a sheer assumption, and one thing I learned back in the days when I started my career as management consultant - "NEVER ASSUME!" It has been helpful advice throughout my life.
In fact, the more I am thinking about it, this gospel reading is a great example of showing what management consulting and coaching is all about - dealing with the impossible and unthinkable. Clients often approach me with all sorts of problems I have no clue about, like feeding 5000 from one picnic basket, walking on water, can sheep have copper in their diet; most essential is, to ask the right questions and to listen what the client has to say, and then draw conclusions from it and take action with the client.
PS: I am wondering how many of those sermons I am going to think about and publish under the header "The Bible a management handbook"...
 |
| Our boat on the Sea of Galilee, back in 2008 at our pilgrimage to the Holy Land. |
My neighbour Sherine and I talked about my SALT story's moral from my last blog entry - look out for Sarahs and get rid of Lots and Terahs in your lives! And whilst we chatted along I said, "I'm wondering if the Bible could be used as management handbook", and Sherine suggested I should try and find out. And that's what I am doing, finding out about it.
Last Sunday's Gospel reading was about 2 miracles - feeding the multitude and Jesus walking on water. Quite a challenge, to squeeze any management wisdom out of those 2 stories. Maybe I am getting an idea whilst thinking and writing about it...
Jesus and his disciples were at the Sea of Galilee; and after having performed quite a few miracles before, I think mainly healing stuff, he wasn't alone anymore, but followed by thousands of people. Jesus looked back and must have said something like: "Jesus Christ! How on earth shall we feed them?" His disciple Philip, probably shaking his head in disbelief, replied that even half a year's wages wouldn't feed them. They were basically in trouble.
Disciple Andrew saw a little boy pass by who carried something like a picnic basket, and inside he spotted 5 barley loaves and 2 fish, probably a week's food supply for his family. Andrew told Jesus about the boy's basket. What is not known from the Gospel is how they managed to obtain the little boy's family's food. Did they kidnap the boy, threaten him to beat him up if he doesn't surrender, steal it from him and beat him up, mesmerize the poor sod, etc... All of this is not known. Also, what happened to the boy after he was "relieved" from carrying his nutritious burden? Did his mother get a hissy fit when he got home empty handed, did the father spank him for having to starve now? All of that is in a biblical grey zone. But then, what's more important, feeding a boy and his family for a week or giving 5000 fans a snack?
 |
| The mosaic in the Church of the Multiplication in Tabgha where the miracle apparently happened. |
Back to Jesus: Once he heard about the picnic basket he probably thought, "okay, it's probably time for another miracle." They "obtained" the food and miraculously managed to feed Christ's 5000 strong fanclub. Hooray, done! Afterwards, Jesus told his disciples to "gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost" and they did and managed to fill further 12 baskets. The multitude saw this and said, "This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world."
A little afterthought: I just hope the little boy got one of those twelve baskets, even though it would mean those were just leftovers.
Jesus knew that after feeding the crowd they wanted to "take him by force to make him king" (of course, who else would miraculously feed them all the time?). It probably daunted him that feeding them wasn't such a good idea because he raised unnecessary expectations. The Bible now says, "he withdrew again to the mountains by himself". How he managed to get out of this situation, I have no idea. Maybe it was one of those "Scottie, beam me up" moments that he just disappeared or that he miraculously made them fall asleep so he could sneak out. This is unknown.
What's known though is, in the evening after it got dark, the disciples climbed onto a boat trying to cross the lake back home to Capernaum. A storm came up and it got pretty scary whilst rowing on the lake. Jesus was still in the mountains and probably just wanted to enjoy some "me time" but him being who he was knew that his disciples were in danger: "Can't I just leave them alone for one evening without them getting into trouble?" he must have thought, and super powers as he possessed he transposed himself from wherever he was in the mountains right onto the lake on which he walked towards the boat. They were terrified, but he said to them: "It is I, do not be afraid". Of course he saved their lives, hopefully telling them off for being stupid. And yet another miracle was performed on that day. Story over.
Can I draw any wisdom out of this for a coaching session or management training? It's difficult. And whilst wondering and pondering, my thoughts are suddenly evolving around whether Jesus was a good manager himself and what would I have told him in a coaching session.
Of course, for this, one would need to assume that Jesus was more of a human being without adding too much of the divinity factor. It's sometimes bad enough to coach humans, but coaching the divine, I have no idea how successful I or anyone else would be.
In a coaching session I'd probably discuss his business of performing miracles whilst on his ministry on Earth. What kind of miracles he produces, how "fruitful" they are, why he is doing them and whether they fulfill their purpose. I'd probably categorise his miracles into "healing miracles" and "others". The first are probably easy to explain, the why and how, but the latter need a deeper insight into the matter and probably a one-by-one explanation. An Excel miracle list would be of help.
For his feeding the 5000 miracle I'd ask and discuss some of the following questions and matters:
- Why did you want to feed them?
- Did you think they would starve if you hadn't done so?
- What consequences did you expect from feeding them?
- What other consequences did you expect if you hadn't fed them?
- Why did you know they wanted to make you their king?
- Why didn't you just go for it and become their king?
- Why did you feed them after all? What are the pros and cons of your actions?
- Did you explain to your disciples why you fed all those people?
- And if, did they understand and learn from this?
- How did you deal with the little boy?
- Did you steal his food and how did it feel?
- How did you justify your action towards the boy and his family?
And similar questions about the walking on water: Why did you do that? Could you have prevented this situation by better communicating to your disciples not to use a boat at night? Was it necessary to walk on water or could you not just stop the winds from blowing, etc?
Of course, I cannot answer any of those questions. I am neither a theologian, nor have I had a chat with Jesus about it; anything else would be a sheer assumption, and one thing I learned back in the days when I started my career as management consultant - "NEVER ASSUME!" It has been helpful advice throughout my life.
In fact, the more I am thinking about it, this gospel reading is a great example of showing what management consulting and coaching is all about - dealing with the impossible and unthinkable. Clients often approach me with all sorts of problems I have no clue about, like feeding 5000 from one picnic basket, walking on water, can sheep have copper in their diet; most essential is, to ask the right questions and to listen what the client has to say, and then draw conclusions from it and take action with the client.
PS: I am wondering how many of those sermons I am going to think about and publish under the header "The Bible a management handbook"...
No comments:
Post a Comment