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Thinking “Out Of The Box”

Many hundreds of years ago in a small Italian town, a merchant had the misfortune of owing a large sum of money to a moneylender. The moneylender, who was old and ugly, fancied the merchant’s beautiful daughter, so he proposed a bargain. He said he would forgo the merchant’s debt if he could marry the merchant’s daughter. Both the merchant and his daughter were horrified by the proposal. The cunning money lender suggested that they let providence decide the matter.

The moneylender told them that he would put a black pebble and a white pebble into an empty bag. The girl would then have to pick one pebble from the bag. If she picked the black pebble, she would become the moneylender’s wife and her father’s debt would be forgiven. If she picked the white pebble she need not marry him and her father’s debt would still be forgiven. But if she refused to pick a pebble, her father would be thrown into jail.

They were standing on a pebble strewn path in the merchant’s garden. As they talked, the moneylender bent over to pick up two pebbles. As he picked them up, the sharp-eyed girl noticed that he had picked up two black pebbles and put them into the bag. He then asked the girl to pick her pebble from the bag.

Now, imagine you were standing in the merchant’s garden. What would you have done if you were the girl? If you had to advise her, what would you have told her?

Careful analysis would produce three possibilities:

• The girl should refuse to take a pebble.
• The girl should show that there were two black pebbles in the bag and expose the moneylender as a cheat.
• The girl should pick a black pebble and sacrifice herself in order to save her father from his debt and imprisonment.

Let’s take a moment to ponder over the above story. This story is used with the hope that it will make us appreciate the difference between lateral thinking and logical thinking. The girl’s dilemma cannot be solved with traditional logical thinking.

Think of the consequences if she chooses the logical answers. What would you recommend the girl do?

The girl put her hand into the moneybag and drew out a pebble. Without looking at it, she fumbled and let it fall onto the pebble-strewn path where it immediately became lost among all the other pebbles.

“Oh, how clumsy of me,” she said. “But never mind, if you look into the bag for the one that is left, you will be able to tell which pebble I picked.”

Since the remaining pebble is black, it must be assumed that she had picked the white one. And since the moneylender dared not admit his dishonesty, the girl changed what seemed an impossible situation into an extremely advantageous one.

The Moral Of This Story: Most complex problems do have a solution, but sometimes we have to think about them in a different way — lateral thinking is a different way.

From the Bible, David is a great example of lateral thinking — or thinking “out of the box.” He had a problem that could not be solved in any traditional way. He was a young boy with a young boy’s strength, and he faced an enemy who was mightily strong, an experienced fighting man, and one who held all the cards, so to speak, in psychological warfare. The man whom David faced had a long history of violence and intimidation, and David sensibly realized he could not beat this ogre by fighting him in the traditional manner.

So he looked at the problem, faced his own limitations, asked for God’s help, then wondered how he could use the skills he did have. What were these skills? Well, a cool head was one thing, and an inventive brain. Another advantage he had was that he could use a slingshot with deadly accuracy (1 Samuel 17:48-50-NKJV).

He could at least choose his own weapon. And this piece of lateral thinking is how he came to kill Goliath (1 Samuel 17-NKJV).

There’s a lesson in this story as well: Never give up because we are outclassed in one area.

At some point in time, we are all outclassed by those with greater skills, but think about the skills we do have, and then adapt the situation to fit those skills.