I saw a documentary one time about a group (troop?) of chimps. A baby chimp died, but the mother kept carrying the carcass around for weeks. The other chimps who seemed to realize that the baby was dead didn't intervene. They let her "work it out" for herself.
So: when to employ the white towel strategy? When to employ the dead chimp strategy?
Anybody who takes on leadership of a ministry will no doubt encounter some brutal beatings and some still born events and activities.
It might be up to us to let the leader come to terms with the fact that the ministry of the community development isn't relevant and they are just taking on unnecessary punishment or hauling a stinking carcass around.
As difficult as it is to ignite or inspire someone into acting out their call and discover their vocation:
maybe the hardest thing to do is to pick up the white towel or to watch as they carry around something that is dead.
Protecting a vulnerable fighter.
Letting a loving parent carry a dead baby.
Tension.
2 comments:
This is a beautiful post, Forrest. One of your best.
We rarely do either, it seems. Because we don't recognize this dynamic.
We talk behind their backs.
We talk about how we knew the fighter didn't stand a chance, but was too naive or dumb or stubborn to quit. We talk about how how delusional the mother is not facing reality and moving on.
In both cases, we favor the easy explanation, rather than the complicated one. Because the complicated one involves us.
We tap the destructive side of tension, when we should be using the constructive side of it.
Now, thanks to you, we have names. "That's a white towel situation." "That's a dead chimp moment."
Beautiful.
How I often find myself justifying not embracing that constructive side of the tension; "I didn't want to hurt their feelings," or "I didn't want it to seem like an intervention"
I gotta tap that positive side of the tension.
Thanks, bro.
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