Thought of the Day 04.23.08

Eli Stone is a TV show about a lawyer with an inoperable brain aneurism who receives prophetic visions. In a recent episode, he saw a major earthquake hitting his city in three days, a prediction which was then independently confirmed. Naturally, he wanted to warn people who otherwise might be killed, but how could he do that without seeming like a lunatic?

Not that that was the real problem. Looking crazy wasn’t important except insofar as it might keep people from listening to him. Getting them to trust his warning was the real concern. He knew that he was morally obligated to get action, not merely to put himself in a position to say he had tried. And though it was infuriating to have people ignore his life-threatening truth, he understood that becoming infuriated would only guarantee failure.

In the end, not everyone listened to him. But the ones who did were people who had experienced his consistent character over time. He learned that getting people to trust the unseen often begins with showing them they can trust that which is visible.