The Gordian Knot
Monday, January 26th, 2009According to ancient Greek legend, who ever could untie the Gordian Knot, an intricate knot of cornel bark tied by the god Midas, would become King of Asia. Many tried to untie the knot, and all failed to solve the complicated problem. As legend goes, Alexander the Great tried. After many attempts, he could not find the ends of the rope. All of his efforts were thwarted by the riddle of the knot. So, he made up his own knot untying rules. He drew his sword and cut the knot in half. The legend says that Asia was fated to him. Some may say he cheated, but I think he solved an “intractable problem by challenging the rules with a bold stroke.”
Most advances in technology, history, education, business, and ministry have occurred because someone challenged the rules and took a different approach. Albert Szent-Gyorgi, the Hungarian physiologist who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine 1937, for discovering vitamin C, said: “Discovery is seeing what everybody else has seen and thinking what nobody else has thought.”
Let’s take some time this week to identify our Gordian Knots – those intractable problems in your life, business, marriage, ministry, classroom, and department – that we have created for ourselves or someone else has created for us, and decide what rules you need to challenge to slice through them. What bold moves and tough calls do you need to make about one of your problems?
This week, let’s see what everyone else has seen, but think what nobody else has thought, and discover healthy and successful solutions.
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