One of the most fun things I did when I was a kid was to play on the teeter totter, a.k.a. seesaw. For one thing it was something you got to do with a friend. No matter how hard you wish for it, it is physically impossible to play teeter totter by yourself! There simply had to be someone on the other end of the board in order for the thing to work.
Another enjoyable aspect of the device is that, whether you understood it or not, you were interacting with complex physical and mathematical laws without even knowing it. The beauty of it was that you didn’t need to know anything at all to participate in the joy of it. And what you did understand about it was mostly experimental and not intellectual.
For instance, you quickly found out, purely by experimentation, that when you were heavier or lighter than the person on the other end of the device, it affected the the way it performed. If you were the heavier of the two riders, it meant that had a little more control over the rate and speed of the ascent of the other end. Also, being heavier, it meant that that you could control how long the other end stayed up in the air. As hard as the the smaller person on the other end tried, that end was not coming down until you decided.
For the lighter passengers, the choices were different, but the experience came with its own particular pleasures and thrills. Depending on the heft of your counterpart, you could likely experience something like what astronaut feels strapped to an ignited rocket. When your seat hits the top of the teeter, you are, more often than not, launched a foot or two into the air, handing on for dear life to the handles in front of you.
The teeter totter only has three basic parts to it: the two ends of the board and something for the board to balance on. Scientists call the balance point the fulcrum. As six year olds, we didn’t even bother to identify or explain the parts, except maybe to say one end was the teeter and the other end the totter. The middle thing was just the middle thing.
We also discovered something amazing about the teeter totter. If we could move the board in one direction or the other, all of a sudden the skinnier kid became more powerful and the bigger kid less. When there was an unequal distribution of board over the middle thing, things equalized between unequally sized kids. Now the little kid could conceivably give the bigger kid a thrill that was usually reserved for the smaller. Another was of saying this was that the little kid had the experience of being bigger, and vice-versa.
What I’m talking about, of course, is the principle and reality of leverage. It’s nothing new. There is a quote from an ancient Greek philosopher, named Archimedes, in which he said, “Give me a place to stand and with a lever I will move the whole world.” Leverage is a universal reality which equalize two unequal things.
The dictionary defines leverage as the action of a lever, that pivots about one point and that is used to move an object at a second point by a force applied at a third. The ‘third point’ described is the fulcrum. The use of the fulcrum allows on kid to lift another kid over his head, with the use and power of the fulcrum. When I was six, I probably weighed 50 pounds, fully clothed and soaking wet. And, since, I had not taken up weight lifting by that time, I sincerely doubt if I could have lifted my best friend, Louie Hopewell, over my head. I could have bear-hugged him and lifted his feet off the ground, but that would have been the extent of my six-year-old superpowers.
But when Louie and I got on the teeter totter, we were instantly transformed into super boys! Little did we know that we were engaging in deep and mysterious laws of the universe. It was just fun. Even if one of the older kids from the block wanted to take a turn, all I had to do was move the board a foot or so in my direction from the fulcrum, and it was game on! I could lift a kid twice my size six feet up into the air, even though I was only four feet tall. What a wondrous thing!
There’s a story in the Bible about a young shepherd, named David. Everyone at least knows about this story if they don’t actually know it. A little shrimpy kid kills a giant, named Goliath. The tale of the tape put Goliath somewhere at about 9 and a half feet tall. It doesn’t say how tall David was; my guess is that it wasn’t as big by a long shot. However tall David was, Goliath made him look shrimpy.
In the story, David gets riled up when he heard Goliath talk smack about David’s God. And, since no one seemed to be willing to take this big galoot on, David had the gumption to throw his hat in the ring. It’s such a great story, people who don’t even regard the Bible as a good book can retell it accurately. You can just about imagine steam coming out of David’s ears, so insulting was this Philistine giant.
Since he’s the only volunteer, the king’s men take him to see the king, so he can interview for the job of giant killer. Can you imagine the look of disappointment the king had on his face when, after his men tell him the great news that one of his soldiers agreed to eliminate this gigantic problem, here stands a young lad who, from all appearances, seemed to be the least qualified to do the job. The king’s initial disappointing thought must have been, “what a bummer.” But he goes ahead with the interview. Miraculously, by the end of the interview, David was hired. Why?
It had something to do with leverage.
So far I’ve described leverage as a universal physical law. Leverage also, however, can definitely have application in the way we do life. We can use the experiences we’ve had in this life so far and leverage them into something weightier and more meaningful and rewarding. More specifically, when we handle the circumstances that life throws at us in a successful manner, we can, in turn, count on the fact that we will experience upgrade and promotion from said experiences.
The story of David is a perfect example of how the experiences David had in younger years qualified him for, and promoted him into, his destiny with Goliath.
When young David was standing before the king and being interviewed, one of the first and most obvious questions he had for the lad was, why do you think you’re qualified for this difficult and perilous assignment? That’s a great question. It’s a question that we are asked by bosses and potential employers, by leaders, and by parents. And, if you’re anything like me, it’s a question I’ve asked myself on more than one occasion. Something to the effect of: who do you think you are? What makes you think that you can take on a higher, more complex, and difficult assignment than the one in which you are currently laboring?
It can be a daunting question, especially if you are insecure, or when you compare yourself to people with more experience or success.
As young David stood there, he could think of only two experiences in his life that would qualify him for such a promotion. You see, his only job experience up to this point in his life was that of tending sheep on his family sheep ranch. He spent lots of time with sheep. He made sure the sheep had food to eat and water to drink. Most of all, it was his assignment to make sure that the sheep were always safe, no matter what. Loss of livestock meant loss of revenue for the family. It was imperative he kept his father’s flock secure and protected from outside predators that saw those sheep as dinner.
A couple of times, according to David, he had to physically defend the sheep from two such predators: a lion and a bear. In both cases he prevailed, killed his opponents, who may have been bigger and more powerful than he was. In any case, since he handled those two assignments, David believed they would leverage him into a higher(taller) one with equal success. These were his exact words: “I have done this to both lions and bears, and I'll do it to this pagan Philistine, too, for he has defied the armies of the living God!”
This convinced the king. The king promoted him to the status of giant-killer, shook his hand, bade him Godspeed, and the rest is history. Goliath did become just like one of those (now dead) predators. Another way of saying it is David leveraged his previous training and experience into a greater and higher application and assignment. He allowed less-weighty factors and used them to bear the greater weight of his new position. Not only that, but we need to let the biblical record show that David didn’t stop there. From being the giant slayer he leveraged his experience into becoming the king’s top military commander, and, ultimately, the king himself.
In part two of this blog, I will explain how this works in life. Although its not as empirical as the laws of the physical universe, leverage is a powerful force in life. If it factors into the life of a shepherd boy-come-king, it may quite possibly factor into our everyday, hopes, dreams and destinies as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment