Bishop Ochei Innocent

A Terrible Mistake Made More Than Four Times in the Bible Bishop Ochei Innocent

SOMETHING HAPPENED IN 1973!That thing left an indelible mark on my heart. That mark is now like the big metal bell atop the single century cathedral church building in my village. Till date, we do not need to hear the bell ring before remembering the time for service. Merely sighting the bell makes one remember. Each time I look at the mark in my heart, I bow and tremble. As high school students, we were truants. We left school while lectures were going on and exit the compound at odd hours. We neither feared nor cared for our lives. On day, we were caught outside the school by the Vice Principal. We were more than a dozen and none of us had permission to be outside the school. Going by the school's bye-laws, the offence was enough for us all to be sent home either on suspension or out-right expulsion. Now sober, we all worried, wondering whether they would expel us, flog us mercilessly or give us grass to cut instead of sending us home. To our pleasant surprise, none of the three deadly options happened. Instead of being sent home, flogged or made to cut grass, we were each asked to buy and hand fill an 80-paged notebook with a repetition of just one sentence: "Mishaps are like knives which either serve or cut us."It was not the filing of the notebook that left a mark in me. Rather, it was the sentence and it's import. Most mishaps come from mistakes. Therefore, I have all my life used them interchangeably. So to me in particular it became: "Mistakes are like knives which either serve or cut us"This has made me, all my life, to treat decision making with great care. I adopt professional approach as a Management Consultant. My training made me realize that decision making is serious business and that the pros and cons must be carefully written down and weighed against one another dispassionately in order to reach a rational decision. I realized also that decisions decide the destinies of many persons, including but not limited to warriors and nations. But this book is not about decision making as a management function but a spiritual responsibility of leaders. This book takes a spy-glass look at one terrible mistake made by four different spiritual and secular leaders in the Bible as well as the far reaching consequencesIt is my hope that the lessons will not be lost on the reader. Must we keep repeating history? Permit me to tell you the story of these four men which I strongly believe will change the way you do business and approach life generally. Happy reading!