Chaplain’s Corner – Tuesday 17 August
Back in 1916, the Stanford Binet Intelligence Test was developed. It gauges intelligence by measuring five factors of cognitive ability and is still used today. Several studies of groups were done of different men and women, young and old, rich and poor as well as many ethnic groups.
One such group that was studied were the Native American Indian Hopis.
Now, when the Hopis received the test, they immediately started to ask each other questions and compare their answers. The instructor saw this happening and quickly intervened, telling them they each had to take the test alone. “You are not permitted to help each other or share your answers among yourselves,’ he told them.
When the Hopi heard this, they were outraged and refused to take the test saying, ‘It is not important that I am smarter than my brother, or that my brother is smarter than me. It is only important what we can do together!”
It is only important what we can do together. As I sit here in my lounge room looking out over the quiet street it feels as though what we are able to achieve together now is far more important that we are apart. And this story of the Hopi’s reminds me that intelligence cannot always be measured on a piece of paper – the Hopis proved their greater intelligence by taking a stand as to why they would not complete the test. Showing the greatest intelligence was actually the ability to work together.
In the Bible we hear about this need for each other, working together, where a community is compared to a body. In a letter Paul wrote to the church in Corinth.
Where each part is important and different and works together with the other parts.
5 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, we are many parts, but one body.
May you work with the people you live with, teams with and zoom with to create more than you ever could possibly do alone.
Grace and Peace
