What's Needed to MakeGoodHappen
Essential Skills for Following Jesus: Wisdom (Pt. 7)
Henry Martyn Robert (1837-1923) was suddenly asked to lead a public meeting at the First Baptist Church in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The meeting was a disaster. Strong disagreements about the town’s local defense caused the meeting to break into open conflict. Robert was humiliated. He also realized that without an agreed-upon structure, meetings like this would fall into chaos, rendering little more than hurt feelings and poor decisions that would leave wounds and divisions in the whole community. There had to be a better way.
He began a search for a set of uniform procedures that would facilitate open and passionate discussion of key issues that would result in decisions everyone could get behind. Roberts developed these uniform procedures and gathered them into a book, Robert’s Rules of Order, published in 1876. The book’s stated purpose is:
"to enable assemblies of any size, with due regard for every member's opinion, to arrive at the general will on the maximum number of questions of varying complexity in a minimum amount of time and under all kinds of internal climate ranging from total harmony to hardened or impassioned division of opinion".1
Today Robert’s Rules of Order is in its 12th edition, considered the gold standard of parliamentary procedure. It is used by organizations such as nonprofits, school boards and professional organizations, trade unions, homeowners associations, and church groups. Learning Robert’s Rules of Order was part of my training as a Presbyterian pastor.
Yet, despite our dependence on such procedures, we tend to see structure, institutions, and traditions as the very things that hinder human progress and keep us from moving forward. We feel that if we could only free ourselves from social constraints, our deeply felt desires would bring forth a world of truth and justice. John Lennon’s Imagine expresses this widespread assumption:
Imagine there's (sic) no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, tooImagine all the people
Livin' life in peace…2
But history shows us again and again that Lennon’s ideal, whether easy to imagine or not, is a pipe dream. His view ignores the fact that humans hold very different opinions and we hold them deeply and passionately.
Our thoughts, feelings, and opinions tell us something important. We should listen to them. But we shouldn’t assume they are telling us what is right and just and true. Many times our emotions are responses to something happening inside us. It is easy to confuse them with what is happening in the world. The ancients learned that when decision making occurs on the basis of human desires and emotions it becomes a struggle for power and influence descending quickly into another version of Major Robert’s meeting. Wisdom helps us to take a step back and discern the difference.
“I instruct you in the way of wisdom and lead you along straight paths. When you walk, your steps will not be hampered; when you run, you will not stumble. Hold on to instruction, do not let it go; guard it well, for it is your life.”3
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.”4
“Then you will understand what is right and just and fair – every good path. For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you.”5
After that first meeting, Robert’s military duties transferred him to different parts of the United States. He found that his meeting experience was epidemic. He experienced parliamentary anarchy as each member from a different part of the country had differing ideas of correct procedure. He decided he would bring order out of chaos. He was sure that previous generations had worked on a similar problem. He would do some historical research and see what he could find.
His primary source was the procedures of the United States House of Representatives. That procedure was loosely based on the British House of Commons parliamentary procedures. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the British Parliament adopted some basic rules for their meetings that also became part of Robert’s Rules of Order including:
Discussing one subject at a time
Avoiding personal attacks during debate
Limiting debate to the merits of the question
Dividing a question into parts to be voted on separately
Robert also read Thomas Jefferson’s writings about early American parliamentary practice. Like Biblical wisdom, all these sources relied upon the practical experience of people who had gone before them. They continue to help people around the world meet and make important decisions to further their lives together.
Our thoughts, feelings, and opinions do tell us something. They tell us a lot about what is going on in our own heads. But we cannot trust them to tell us what is happening outside, what actions will be right, just, and true. We must test our own thoughts and emotions with the views and opinions of people with experience and expertise with our particular concerns.
Biblical wisdom offers us a way to step back from what we think and feel and place those thoughts and feelings before God, allowing God's wisdom to search our hearts...to do what Solomon did...by dialoging with the ancient wisdom of Israel. We may find that we are the woman whose child it truly was. We may also find out that we are the woman who, in her deep grief, had taken the other woman's child to protect her from the deepest pain. Either way, we need to explore our thoughts and emotions before taking action if truth and justice, if makinggoodhappen, is our goal.
Oh Lord God, from Randy’s lips to Your ears, that our political leaders and outselves, may read, abide and live this out.