Lessons Learned - How Costly to Ignore

Life teaches many lessons and in many different ways. Some lessons we learn early and only have to learn once, like you can expect your older brother to retaliate if you take his candy, or the electric fence is just as effective keeping curious toddlers out of the field as it is keeping cows in, or trying to ride a motorcycle when you can barely ride a bicycle is a bad idea. Other lessons may take time to learn and may require frequent refreshing, like it’s so much easier staying in shape than it is getting back into shape, especially as we age, or you eventually need to stop giving to someone who keeps asking even though tough love hurts you more than it does them.

Sometimes the lesson we learn is that the right thing hurts, maybe just a little sting, maybe just to the tune of a few dollars or an apology or some hurt feelings that go away after a few days, but the right thing sometimes hurts.

Take for example my own lesson. We recently purchased tickets to a Tuesday evening showing of “Hello Dolly” at Broadway’s Shubert Theater. If you do a Google search for “Hello Dolly Broadway” or “Hello Dolly NYC” or any myriad of permutations searching for the topic, you’ll find significant marketing around Ms. Bette Midler as the lead Dolly Levi. In addition to the main theater page, several ticket sellers and resellers advertise Ms. Midler as the lead often in bold white lettering on a large red background. (See picture inset) We were excited, on the edge of our seats to watch Bette Midler reprise the role of Dolly Levi right there in living color! However, if you search diligently, you may discover Ms. Midler doesn’t perform on Tuesday nights.

In the business development world, we say it is of utmost importance to write not merely to be understood, but so you may not possibly be misunderstood. While I could argue the design of the website and proliferation of marketing made discovery of Ms. Midler’s schedule problematic, it was possible to discover the Tuesday break if we allowed diligence to overcome excitement.

We did not, and we enjoyed Ms. Donna Murphy in the lead role of Dolly Levi.

Misunderstandings lead to lessons and some of those lessons are costly and painful. In this case, the cost was just a few dollars, a few hours, and some hurt feelings when we realized our dream of seeing Ms. Midler in person would not be met that day after traveling to the City. A few weeks later we sit and laugh about it. “Lesson learned.”

Jesus himself advises us to learn from our own mistakes and from the actions of others. He knows how costly lessons can be, and would rather we learn from historical precedent than relearn in our own time, at our own cost. If we follow His lead, perhaps our cost will just be a few dollars and hurt feelings, not eternal in cost or scope.

“Only give heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently, so that you do not forget the things which your eyes have seen and they do not depart from your heart all the days of your life” (Deut 4:9, NIV)

And…

“Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, ‘The people sat down to eat and drink, and stood up to play.’ Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day. Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents. Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” (1 Cor 10:6-11, NIV)

So while I poke fun with my little tongue-in-cheek example, my challenge is most serious in this week between Christmas and New Year’s. I challenge us all to be diligent and remember the lessons of the past – of mistakes we have made and of those we’ve witnessed in others – and specifically those taught in God’s Word. Eternal damnation isn’t the cost for Hello Dolly. But what lessons might we be ignoring for which the cost is higher than we can afford to pay?

(Marketing courtesy of hellodollyonbroadway.com)