This speech was so much inline with the post that I could not ignore posting the video on Youtube (which is against the rules, just hoping that many will benefit from it).
Religion Vs Jesus way
It says, “if people ask you about following Jesus and you come up with 100 do’s and don’t then seriously you have messed it up ….. if coming to church becomes more important than loving your wife/children/neighbor then you are missing something … Sabbath is made for men but not men for sabbath” …. Do see the video, it teaches you so much about religion vs Jesus.
What is rule vs purpose of rule?
Do you remember my post http://www.seoforclients.com/hr/break-rules-often/ (Why do I break rules so often?)? I will give you a simple example: When a company starts, it starts with almost no rules, people come at any time, work anytime and return back anytime. Everybody knows what others are doing and most of them are fully committed to work but as and when the company grows you will get people manipulating the timings and there comes the rule, 9 to 6 rules. You need to come to the office by 9:00 else you will be marked half day and so on.
Now look at the scenario? There is a person who did not get enough sleep till 3 am and in order to be in office at 9:00, he need to get up at 7:00. He will feel much better if he can sleep till 9 am and comes to the office at 11am. If he comes to the office at 9am with just 4 hours of sleep it will neither be good for the company nor for himself. Now the rule says “9 am”, purpose of the rule says “work effectively” … the owner of the office will certainly agree about the person coming at 11am and finishing his work effectively but the keepers of the law will kill his day for coming late. What if the person always comes late but is going his job (this guy has problem at home and can’t sleep early, I faced it with some people).
Why we don’t allow exceptions in rules?
Simply to make sure that people are not misusing the exceptions. Though rules are not meant for everyone but it should be followed by everyone for the SAKE OF NO-Partiality. I had always been a partial (Showing favoritism) leader. I showed partiality based on the performance irrespective of what the non-performers say. When the performers go out of their ways to help the company, why can’t the company go out of the ways to help these performers. HELL with non-performers who check on what I got and what other got. I have seen that performers are too busy getting the thing done and hardly bothers about what others are getting. He/She should get what he/she deserves :).
Some people will never change
Even after the rules (which are meant to correct the bad people), the bad people will never change, they will find loopholes and will keep manipulating the system. In a society we are not able to throw all of them off and are forced to have laws but in an office we can certainly go with minimum laws.
When it comes to religiously following laws, it becomes dangerous
Some people follow rules religiously and are after everyone who doesn’t follow it. Example: “(Debatable) Women are suppose to cover their heads while praying. At times some of our new members don’t do it. The people who did not cover their head are praying sincerely and the religious people are thinking and looking at the person without the head cover judgmentally. They messed up their prayers by just being judgmental. Also they made an opinion about the person with a non-religious label. BUT DIDN’t Bible also say “Don’t Judge others”?“.
There comes the community, community of religious people based on rules. “We don’t do this so we are separate from others, we come early so we are the most sincere employees, we brought a card for mom on valentines day so we love mom better and so on ” BUT WHAT ABOUT THE PURPOSE OF THE LAW.
(Once Jesus was asked) “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew- 22:36-40
It is important to follow rules
It is important to follow rules but more important to understand the purpose of the rule and follow the purpose of the rule.
Understand rule from the context
Always remember the context of the rule. When was the rule made? What was the purpose of the rule? Who made it? etc …. There are people wearing white on Sundays (thats great), it started in a part of India as that was there culture, white was official. You follow the rule but don’t make it rule above the purpose of attending church. “Don’t make it uncomfortable for others who are not in white”.
Inspire don’t force rules
People do a a better job when they know why they are doing it. So inspire others not force on others. “If celebrating valentine day is bad for Indian culture then come up with the reasons, inspire your fellow brothers and sisters not to go for it BUT WHY THE HELL YOU NEED TO FORCE ON THE PEOPLE. Isn’t you breaking the bigger law of hitting your own brothers and sisters.”
Rules are subject to change, add exceptions
There is no rule that is perfect. There are purposes/themes that are perfect. “You need to work sincerely for your office” is a perfect theme but you need to work from 9am to 6pm is an imperfect rule. There are times when you will need to add exceptions to make the rule more effective and easy on performers. 9am to 6pm atleast 15 days of the month, you can come late with the permission of the team leader, star performers will get exceptions in the rules etc etc.
Enjoy the rule but do understand the purpose of the rule 🙂
We must also appreciate that without rules humans could have been extinct today. Rules probably helped us spread across the globe and dominate all other species. Society, rules etc. helped us outnumber other animals (we too are animals, yes). For better or worse is subject of another debate!
No doubt that rules are required for our us but the point is “Rules are for humans not humans for rules”. The time a rule grows over the purpose it takes a different shape.
Example: “Sundays are off and the family used to do all the purchases on Sundays. The family realized that they were not spending enough time together because of the shopping. The family decided to make a rule that no purchases on Sundays. When it came to next generation, it became a rule where buying anything on Sundays was considered unlucky. In the next generation rule lost its purpose and it became too rigid that people started fighting over purchases on Sundays.”
Only argument is to never count the rule over its purpose.
Rules are a must and survival of a society or humankind revolves around rules. I do agree with you–purpose is lost in the long run and we start misintrepreting them. But elimination of rules altogether would mean end of days.
I agree that rules are inevitable but we people need to understand the purpose of the rule (as well). Once we start understanding the purpose of the rule and follow accordingly it will make more sense. In companies, we used to spend a lot of time explaining the purpose behind the rule. This has helped many follow it and improve it with good suggestions.
Another good example is our driver: He gives the right-left turning indication at the very last moment. (As far as I know) He is ok with the rule but he could give a little early so that others can understand. Once we start understanding the purpose of the rule, life becomes even more meaningful.
I am also writing another article called Invisible rules, that explains that we are given a rule by nature (based on Romans 2:14-15).