A Story

Once upon a time, a man decided to start a business. He had great success, and his business grew until he decided it was time to expand overseas. He decided to make a preliminary trip overseas to get contacts and start organizing things. As he would be gone for 5-6 months, he decided to leave his personal aide in charge while he was gone.

He told his aide, "While I am gone, you will be in charge. I will write frequently, and give you instructions as to what needs to be done. I trust you with everything."

So he went overseas, and got busy preparing to expand his business.

Six months later, he returned home, and decided to stop in at his business and see how things were going. When he got there, however, he was astonished to see the state of things. The grass was high and full of weeds, there were broken windows here and there, and trash was blowing around. When he went inside, he saw that the carpet hadn't been vacuumed in a long time, all the plants were dead, and several light bulbs were out. The receptionist didn't even notice that he had come in, because she was too busy listening to the radio while doing her nails and snacking on popcorn. 

He heard a lot of people in the cafeteria, so he headed that way. When he walked in the room, no one noticed him, or seemed excited that he was back. He asked someone where his aide was, and they said, "Oh, I think he's over there."

He headed in the indicated direction, and soon found his aide just finishing a chess game with the head of sales. "I'd like to speak to you in my office," he told his aide.

Upon entering his office with his aide, he found that it had been converted into a TV room for people to watch soap operas in the afternoon.

"What have you done?" asked the businessman.

"What do you mean?" said his aide.

"Did you get any of my letters?"

"Oh, yes," said the aide, "We got every one!"

"In fact," he continued, "We started meeting every Friday night and Saturday to read and study them together."

"We really think that there's some great stuff in the letters. Sometimes we even have debates over certain points you make - some people interpret them one way, and others see things the opposite way."

"In fact," he added, "We've memorized some of the sentences and even some paragraphs from what you wrote. One employee actually memorized an entire letter!"

The businessman asked, "But what have you done? Didn't you do anything I said in my letters?"

"...No, we didn't." replied the aide.

"Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams." - 1 Samuel 15:22