A tale of two paradigms
Two nations are in your womb, two peoples shall be
separated from your body.
The story of Esau and Jacob shows us how individuals who started life together, end up growing in different ways, develop different value systems and make different choices about their destinies.
Two people can be born under very similar circumstances go through similar experiences and yet arrive at different destinies. People sit in the same classroom and listen to the same teacher, use the same textbooks, do the same assignments, sometimes even get the same grades, but then as they grow into their future
roles, they do not achieve the same levels of success in their individual pursuits. The same applies to corporate bodies, organizations and nations.
Even identical twins who were developed out of the same fertilized human egg, grew in the same womb, got nurtured by the same parents and shared clothing, friends and educational experiences in their formative years do not always end up in their adult life with the same levels of performance and achievement. One may become more successful with their chosen profession or career whilst the other never manages to find happiness and success with their lives.
Part of the reason for the way people turn out differently has to do with two
vital factors:
1. The values they develop for their lives.
2. The way they see life and respond to it.
These two vital factors ultimately, shape all the important decisions people make. When we are children, we receive our values and perspectives from our parents and the larger community we live in.
As we grow up, we use our powers of self-awareness, imagination and choice to either affirm what we learnt at home or create a new set of values and perspectives. For some of my childhood friends, their future was marred by the wrong values of their parents and the decisions they made on their behalf. Others
probably responded to the wrong values they saw in their community and just implemented them in their lives.
IS IT FATE OR CHOICE?
Some observe the various outcomes of life and conclude that it is all a matter of fate and destiny. That man has no control over what the final outcome will be. That is a very sad way to look at life. To think that God created man to just go through life like a robot preprogrammed without options, simply to act in certain
predetermined ways, is biblically flawed.
One of the first responsibilities of man in the garden of Eden was to exercise his power of choice and to live in the consequences of his choice. The choice to either eat of the tree that gives us life or the one that produces death was the prerogative of man. If God has given us the power of choice, then it means the quality of our choices impacts directly on the quality of our lives. The basis we use in formulating our choices, therefore becomes crucial to the quality of choices we make and the resulting quality of
life we lead. They will determine:
• Whether we live in the comfort of what we have today or create
better opportunities for tomorrow.
• Whether we live on what we have today or save to invest for tomorrow.
• Whether our choices fulfill short term needs or long-term
purposes.
• Whether we allow the desperation of today to make us ignore the
consequences of our decisions on our future.
There are those who work with a value system that is focused on short-term needs and tend to make decisions that seem beneficial today but become disastrous in the future. I call such people and nations, Esau’s. On the other hand, there are those who work with a value system that is focused on long-term benefits instead of short-term needs. They save what they have today and invest it for greater benefit in the future. I call them, Jacobs.
