OBLIGATION/INNOVATION: NOT AN EITHER/OR QUESTION

CHANNING WALKER

GENERAL MOTORS, never far from the headlines in the United States, recently captured them again. The automaker is losing money and had to announce cutbacks to its workforce. The company feels it must shrink into a leaner, more nimble car company.

Good idea, say experts. But the cutbacks won't solve one particular financial issue. GM has an enormous financial obligation to its now-retired former employees, who not only collect pensions, but also receive healthcare benefits that are sometimes quite costly.

Back in the glory days of GM, there were four workers for every retiree. Now, these figures are almost reversed. Today retirees outnumber current workers. And the financial obligation to those retirees adds about $1,500 to the cost of every new vehicle. By comparison, the comparable cost to Toyota is only around $300. And this expense translates into GM having to allocate a lot of money that could otherwise be invested in research, development, and innovation (The News Tribune, November 27,2005).

But looking at the numbers, and trying to get myself past the "gee whiz" response to them, I begin to wonder: Does obligation always have to kill innovation? Or is there another approach? I ask myself, Is there a spiritual perspective that might disclose a new view, a view beneficial not only to giant concerns such as the auto industry, but also to small-scale operations and individual lives?

Before long, I am pondering two much-loved accounts from the Scriptures that are so familiar I can scarcely believe they might conceal within their storylines the model I'm looking for. Recall this. In the first story, we read that Christ Jesus, has been talking with his disciples and a crowd of several thousand at a remote location. The crowd is hungry, and the resources are minimal. If Jesus and his disciples leave at this point, they will have, at least by one reckoning, turned their backs on both the crowd and on any obligation they might have to provide for the crowd.

And according to this account, we are told, "His disciples came to him, saying, This is a desert place, and the time is now past; send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves victuals" (Matt. 14:15).

THE INSPIRATION POURING FORTH FROM DIVINE LOVE CAN LEAD TO FULFILLMENT OF AN OBLIGATION AND ALSO SPARK NEEDED INNOVATION.

Later, when Jesus fed many thousands of people again, the Scriptures reads, "Jesus called his disciples unto him, and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days, and have nothing to eat: and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way" (Matt. 15:32). It's apparent from botth of these events that Jesus and his disciples held different views on what should be done about the situation at hand.

The disciples' view of any obligation to feed the multitude seems to be that it is a burden they want to shed. But Jesus seems to view the overwhelmingly huge need as an opportunity to love—an obligation that he wants to embrace. And as Jesus embraces it, the most innovative solution imaginable opens up. Jesus' love for the multitude—a love that emanates from God, divine Love—transforms in both instances a few loaves of bread and a few fish into more than enough sustenance for hundreds, thousands, of people. On these occasions at least, obligation doesn't kill innovation. It spurs thought forward to an astonishingly inspired solution.

Science and Health states, "Love inspires, illumines, designates, and leads the way" (p. 454). According to this sequence, the inspiration pouring forth from divine Love can lead to fulfillment of an obligation and also spark needed innovation. The window that opens onto this more spiritual view of obligation, simultaneously reveals a more exalted view of innovation.

Whether it's a giant corporation such as GM, or families of two or three people, a spiritual approach is needed more than ever these days. By turning to our divine resource, God, we actually tap into a wellspring off ideas so rich that innovation and obligation become friendly partners rather than wary adversaries. Realizing this, those who pray help everyone receive the benefits of a marketplace that is fairer to all, and at the same time, more productive.

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