I was reminded of a story that comes to us out of antiquity about a man with a lot of power and authority. He decided one day to stay home from work and upon doing so saw, something he ought not to have looked at, or maybe, to have kept looking at. It was the form of a woman and he had the authority and power to even call her to him. He slept with her even though she happened to be the wife of somebody he knew very well, who worked for him. To make matters worse, she became pregnant and he realized it was his child and there was no way the husband would think it was his own as work had taken him out of town. So he decided to do something about it. Calling the husband back from work, this man tried to get the husband to go and sleep with his wife. He wouldn't. Finally, to make a long story short, he actually had this man killed.
It's a sad story, but gets sadder because this man then continued in his role of power and authority quite oblivious to all he had done – the heinous crime that had been committed against this family, until another man who knew him well confronted him through a simile, ending with, "You are that man" who was responsible for the injustice. When the grave crime he had committed finally hit home, the man felt great remorse over what he had done.
What stood out to me was that we can be quite oblivious to some of the things we do that cause problematic situations. We can continue going about the things we do and not really understand we have done something wrong, whether knowingly or unknowingly.
I was reminded of a disease that was called 'puerperal fever' in the 19th century. It was instrumental in claiming the deaths of many women who had just given birth. Doctors were completely flummoxed by how this was happening because the childbirth was safe (which was the critical issue), yet days after the childbirth, the mother would die. They couldn't figure out what was happening. Then a man named Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, father of the Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., wrote an article that said doctors could be the problem and they needed to wash their hands regularly. Everybody was up in arms when they read that. Charles Meigs of the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, said that no such care was needed. "Doctors are gentlemen, and gentlemen's hands are clean."
That debate went on for quite a few years before people began to take things seriously. In fact, there's a record of Dr. William Campbell, a Scotsman, who denied that puerperal fever was contagious until his own experience changed his mind. He reports that after dissecting the corpse of a woman killed by the disease, he put her uterus in his pocket to show his students without using gloves or washing his hands. That same evening, in the same clothes, he attended the delivery of a poor woman in Canongate, and she died. The next morning, with the same clothes, he went to assist some of his pupils engaged with a woman in Bridewell. The baby was delivered with forceps; but the mother died.
It took so much evidence for the doctors to finally realize they were actually the ones causing harm to their patients. It brought out this whole idea – how could the pure of heart possibly be spreading disease? On the flip side, how are noble intentions mentally equated to good outcomes? Somehow we think that just because intentions are noble, the outcome will be good. In this case, it was not. Noble intentions, yes! But outcomes were deathly, fatal for mothers. It was a huge epidemic until one day, when physicians realized they indeed were the problem. That while they were doing multiple autopsies in a bid to find the cause, the solution wasn't in how many dissections they did, but in the person doing the post-mortem. At that point they started sterilization, using gloves and washing their hands – and this particular disease receded.
The problem of us. I could be the problem, and the solution as well. Simon Sinek in his book Leaders Eat Last sees a parallel today, and says: "Our men of science are actually men of business and economics who rely on metrics, drives for efficiency, Lean, Six Sigma, calculations of returns on investment (2014, p. 183)," and so on. But in the midst of all this, we are wondering what's happening to relationships. Office spaces are getting sterile and clinical. Teamwork is getting harder and harder because we are not relating any more. We don't talk enough. We are basing everything, our relationships, on numbers. In the midst of looking at just these numbers, we are forgetting that there are people involved in it. Leadership is about taking responsibility for lives and not numbers.
If we can bring this whole thing home—this disease we are talking about and this man who was so powerful—it comes down to us. We have an opportunity to make a difference and yet, we can also be the people who are the problem. Today, when we look at high attrition rates and charged atmospheres where everybody is looking out for themselves, could it be that the numbers are getting more important than the people? Could it be that we are the problem, that, as leaders, we are forgetting it is people we must look after, and not just the numbers and the bottom line.
That made me think today of the problem of us. The problem could be you and me. Often, it's worth taking a good hard look at the things we do. Surprisingly maybe, we could find that if we fix ourselves, the problem too might get fixed! A word for me, a word for you, and we'll allow God to give us wisdom to use it.
May I pray with you? Almighty God, give to each one of us wisdom to search deep into our own hearts and see if, by some chance, we have become oblivious to the fact we are contributing towards a problem. And if we are, Heavenly Father, help us to rectify ourselves, for we lean on Your wisdom. In Lord Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
• Paraphrased version of King David's adultery with Bathsheba, 2 Samuel cos.11-12, Holy Bible
• Ruin Burch, "When Childbirth was Natural, and Deadly." http://www.livescience.com/3210-childbirth-natural-deadly.html
Simon Sinek, "Leaders Eat Last." 
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