October 7; No Matter How Innocent They Sound, There Is Danger In Some Words
MANAGEMENT BY THE BOOK:
365 Daily Bible Verse &
One-Minute Management Lessons For The Busy Faithful

Chapter Ten: Deciding 7 October

His talk is smooth as butter,

yet war is in his heart;

his words are more soothing than oil,

yet they are drawn swords.

Psalm 55:21

Rapier

The tiny tip – the point that cuts: small words that cut to the heart of the matter.

In the sausage making of law there are small, subtle, innocent little words that politicians can use to steer the intent of legislation.

Your Business Professor served a tour of duty in government and I quickly learned the two most important words in law making.

Shall, and

May

Yes, those two little words used to dominate my public service life. In crafting legislation or policy and procedure my two little buddies could dictate or suggest.

Shall or May. Directive or suggestive.

“Shall” was not the first word in a question. ‘Shall’ did not ask, did not seek permission, did not offer options. ‘Shall’ is not squeeshie legalese.

Shall would appear as an ordinary word. But it is not. It is SHALL. It is the Scriptural equivalent of the GREAT I AM.

‘SHALL’ shall not be disobeyed. It meant that the text which follows ‘Shall’ directs that ITS WILL WILL BE DONE.

“Shall” indicated that an action was to be followed. Concrete Action.

‘May’ was a sandy sands through your hands suggestion. An option. An idea whose time may or may not have come.

May meant, well, nothing. If there is a budget… It’d be nice… You have the option… Whatever.

I could make a safe decision and ignore that word and the phrase that followed. Come what may. And like any time-starved manager I was desperate to find anything I could ignore.

But what I couldn’t ignore was that four letter word, “Shall.”

Shall sounded nice. A breezy word; sounding like: shallow or sanguine. Simple, right?

No, it is Not.

There is lots of power in SHALL.

There is lots of liberty lost in SHALL.

That’s why “Congress shall make no law…” is so popular.

This is the reason ObamaCare or any centralized, intrusive government program is a terror—that word ‘shall.’

Former Presidential Candidate Gary Bauer quotes former Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin on the “Obama’s Death Panel,”

Sarah Palin, Vice Presidential candidate, wrote,

The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s ‘death panel’ so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their ‘level of productivity in society,’ whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.

Whole government departments and the livelihoods of 100?s of thousands of (expensive) bureaucrats hinged on ‘shall’ and ‘may.’ It can mean life or death.

His talk is smooth as butter, yet war is in his heart; his words are more soothing than oil, yet they are drawn swords. Psalm 55:21

###