Leadership Thought: Jumping to Conclusions is the Only Exercise Some People Get!

Dear Friends,

We must always be very careful about jumping to conclusions before knowing all the facts. I am reminded of this danger by the following story.

A lady invited several friends to a mushroom steak dinner. When her maid opened a can of mushrooms, she discovered a slight scum on the top. Since the guests were expected momentarily, the lady of the house suggested, “Give the dog a little, and if he eats it, it's probably alright.”

The dog loved it, eagerly begging for more. After the main course was completed, the maid came in to serve the dessert, but her face was ashen white. She whispered into her employer’s ear, “Ma'am, the dogs dead.”

There was only one thing to do, and the lady did it. She informed her guests of the situation and urged them to go the hospital as quickly as they could. The guests all rushed to the hospital to have their stomachs pumped out.

A short while later the host called her maid and asked, “Where's the poor dog now?

“Out on the front steps, ma’am, where he fell after the car hit him.”

Most of us have all been guilty of making hasty decisions without knowing all the facts. We look at a situation, make a quick judgment, only to discover, much to our embarrassment, that we arrived at a faulty conclusion.

The three tribes (Ruben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh) wanted to live east of the Jordan river on land they had already conquered. They wanted to settle there because they had large herds and flocks and the land on the east side of the Jordan was more suitable for raising livestock. (Numbers 32:1)

Moses was angered because he assumed the tribes were simply attempting to avoid helping their fellow Israelites in the military campaign to subdue and settle Canaan on the other side of the river.

But Moses was wrong. His assumptions were faulty because he didn’t possess all the facts.

Let's make sure in dealing with people that we have all the facts before we draw a false conclusion…the kind that leaves egg on our face.

Don't do as Moses did: he didn't take time to seek out all the facts before he drew his conclusion. Don’t always assume that someone's motives are wrong, even if their plan sounds suspicious. First gather all the facts before making a judgement. Doing so can save you a lot of embarrassment.

Years ago, gifts to the Prairie Bible institute of Alberta, Canada, declined from a certain geographical area. At that time the school’s president, Doctor Maxwell, had undergone two operations for cataracts, one on each eye. When a representative of the school was visiting that particular area, he was approached by a donor who asked Dr. Maxwell why he was riding around in two Cadillac’s. Hasty jumping to conclusions had changed the word “cataracts” to “Cadillacs” and caused people to withhold their gifts. You Don't Have to Go It Alone, Leslie B. Flynn, p. 126

As someone has once said, “a person can save himself from many a hard fall by refraining from jumping to conclusions.”

Yours in faith and friendship,

Tom