Dear Solomon, how can I best help others?

One of the various jobs I have held over the years was as an assistant manager at one of the “big box” office supply stores. The work was fine, but the working atmosphere was horrible. The store manager was in many ways a little tyrant. It wasn’t completely his fault because he was getting all kinds of pressure from the corporate offices, and he seemed to simply not know any other way to manage people.

We usually had a few days or even a week’s notice when the corporate bigwigs were coming for a visit. Those days leading up to that visit were unbearable at times. My boss would be running around the store picking on everything and everybody. It was miserable. “Coincidentally” the frequency of employees calling in sick rose dramatically during those weeks — they would rather do without pay than come into work and get berated. I considered it myself a few times.

My illustration does not do justice to the emphasis Solomon places on the health of our inner spirit — “The spirit of a person can endure a sick body, but who can handle it when your spirit is crushed?”

We can typically endure the times when we are physically sick. It’s not any fun, but we can usually get through those times pretty much intact. But when we have to endure the times where our spirit is crushed, the recovery period is much longer. Some people never recover if the event or circumstance is severe enough. I would have to assume that some of the inhumane tactics that prisoners of war go through is designed specifically to crush a man’s spirit. Most soldiers that I know could endure the physical pain, but it was much more difficult to endure the emotional and psychological pain of the wars they have been through.

The full article is available in our e-Edition. Click here to subscribe.