What's Your Camel?

There’s a morality tale about an eighteenth camel – it goes that a man with 3 sons died, leaving half his inheritance to the eldest son, one-third to the middle child, and one-ninth to the youngest. The challenge: the man had 17 camels; obviously they could not be divided as he intended. The sons became adversarial, until a neighbour proposed a solution: she would add one camel to herd.

The maths become feasible then – one half is 9, one third is 6, and one ninth is 2 – thereby leaving one camel left over, to return to the kind neighbour. Problem resolved!

It’s a tale of mutual gains, whereby everyone wins: the sons each receive slightly more than expected, no camels are hurt in the process, and the feuding brothers can stop fighting. Even the neighbour who loaned out the camel lost nothing. A win-win all around, thanks to some outside the box thinking.

With a little creativity and collaboration, most of the challenges that we face today can likewise be overcome. While it may not involve a camel, it can be a simple solution that comprises new ideas and new ways of working together.

As we shift into a post-lockdown world and church, we know that people are being more discerning with how they extend their time, energy, and commitment. We are focusing more on actual engagement rather than casual association. As such, we know things are changing around us, and thus we are being presented the opportunity to re-examine how and why we are doing things. And, like the brothers with the camels, we may feel defensive and adversarial; yet like the neighbour we can instead seek solutions in mutually beneficial ways – no one needs to ‘lose’ for others to ‘win.’ Let’s keep a Christian focus on possibilities – and enjoy the potential ‘camels’ in our communities.