Chuck Swindoll says, in his book, Improving Your Serve:
"To make the value of obedience just a practical as possible, let's play 'Let's
Pretend.' Let's pretend that you work for me. In fact, you are my executive
assistant in a company that is growing rapidly. I'm the owner and I'm interested
in expanding overseas. To pull this off, I make plans to travel abroad and stay
there until a new branch office gets established. I make all the arrangements to
take my family and move to Europe for six to eight months. And I leave you in
charge of the busy stateside organization. I tell you that I will write you
regularly and give you directions and instructions. I leave and you stay.
Months pass. A flow of letters are mailed from Europe and received by you at the
national headquarters. I spell out all my expectations.
Finally, I return. Soon after my arrival, I drive down to the office and I am
stunned. Grass and weeds have grown up high. A few windows along the street are
broken. I walk into the Receptionist's room. She is doing her nails, chewing gum
and listening to her favorite disco station. I look around and notice the
wastebaskets are overflowing. The carpet hasn't been vacuumed for weeks, and
nobody seems concerned that the owner has returned. I asked about your
whereabouts and someone in the crowded lounge area points down the hall and
yells, "I think he's down there." Disturbed, I move in that direction and bump
into you as you are finishing a chess game with our sales manager. I ask you to
step into my office, which has been temporarily turned into a television room
for watching afternoon soap operas.
"What in the world is going on, man?"
"What do you mean, Chuck?"
"Well, look at this place! Didn't you get any of my letters?"
"Letters? Oh yes! Sure! I got every one of them. As a matter of fact, Chuck, we
have had a letter study every Friday night since you left. We have even divided
the personnel into small groups to discuss many of the things you wrote. Some of
the things were really interesting. You will be pleased to know that a few of us
have actually committed to memory some of your sentences and paragraphs. One or
two memorized an entire letter or two - Great stuff in those letters."
"OK. You got my letters. You studied them and meditated on them; discussed and
even memorized them. But what did you do about them?"
"Do? We didn't do anything about them."
Author unknown. If anyone has a proprietary interest in this story please
authenticate and I will be happy to credit, or remove, as the circumstances
dictate.
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