The study of ancient history has been one of my life's passions since I was knee high to a grasshopper. I regularly took trips to the library during my childhood. I would check out stacks of books about ancient cultures from around the world and important figures from different periods in time. Even as I grew into a rebel-rousing knucklehead (slang in my vocabulary for "teenager") and traded in being a straight-A student for parties, chicks, and rock and roll, history still fascinated me.
It remained one of a handful of subjects in my high school years that I actually excelled at. Of course, many of my peers hated history and thought it was as exciting as watching paint dry. During study halls I often overheard dramatic laments over history assignments featuring a question I heard a million times over the course of my life: "Who cares? How does any of this impact my life? What's the point?"
In reality, it's an excellent question. Why should we study the lives of those who came from a different time? How does George Washington crossing the Delaware impact a person's day-to-day life? Or Alexander the Great conquering the world over 2,000 years ago? Or the building of the pyramids? What connection do these things have with the struggles of the common man in 2025?
Far more than you probably realize.
Despite advances in science, technology, and medicine, human nature stays fundamentally the same today as it did thousands of years ago. People thousands of years ago faced heartaches, failed marriages, betrayal, devastating loss, unemployment, wars, oppression, and poverty the same way people today do.
Christians in Nigeria and other places around the world are currently suffering slaughter for their faith in Jesus Christ. Over 2,000 years ago, in the wake of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the Apostles began spreading the gospel, and believers often suffered martyrdom and persecution. The only difference is two millennia and more advanced tools to inflict cruelty on the people of God.
The examples set by those from the early days of the Church, who stayed faithful to Christ while facing horrendous torture and death, show believers today how to remain strong against opposition. Even those of us who live in America and don't have to worry all that much about acts of violence being carried out against us can learn from the example martyrs left behind. You can draw strength from their steely resolve when someone makes fun of you for not getting wasted on the weekends or tries to pressure you to go against God's law.
What happens in the past shapes who we are in the present and influences where we will be in the future. Another way of looking at it is that you can't get to where you're going without understanding where you've been, so you know where you are. Learning the roots of a given culture or society helps you understand how it got to the place and condition it stands in today. History helps us avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, serving as a lamp unto our feet as we travel an unknown path toward the future, guiding us away from sticks, stones, and other things that do far more damage than breaking bones.
History also applies on practical levels at the workplace. Moses in the Old Testament led the entire Jewish people. Since God chose him to be the boss man by making him the liberator of his people and passing His law down to them through him, folks started coming to him with their legal problems. It didn't take long before Moses felt overwhelmed, burned out, and ready for a nervous breakdown.
His father-in-law saw the toll the insane workload had on Moses and suggested he appoint men from every tribe to serve under him and hear the less important cases, saving only the biggest and most difficult for Moses to hear. Moses followed the wise advice and saved his sanity. The lesson here is that if you're in charge of a group of people working on a project, or the manager of a bunch of employees, you need to delegate tasks to alleviate your stress and focus your attention on more important matters to keep the company afloat.
Have an employee who's talented and full of potential but is putting in the bare minimum? Take a cue from Alexander the Great, the young general who conquered the known world at that time in history by the time he hit 30. Alexander was a man of grand vision. He believed he was destined to take over the world, that he would never falter and ultimately rule the world. His troops showed extreme loyalty to him and believed in him, treating him almost as a god—at least at the beginning.
This loyalty partly came from Alexander's ability to cast his vision in such a way as to seemingly include every single soldier who served under him. They saw themselves as extensions of Alexander. He lived in every one of them. By casting a grand vision to your employees, you can inspire them to reach for their own personal greatness by contributing to the mission of the company. Encourage them to be like Alexander and think outside the box. Be creative. And allow them the freedom to do so.
History has so much to teach us, so much pain to save us from experiencing. If only we wouldn’t look to the past with disdain and arrogance, somehow believing ourselves more "civilized" than our ancestors. Nothing about human nature has changed. Our ancestors had thousands of years to ponder the condition of man. Some of the brightest and smartest individuals ever to walk the face of the earth tackled the questions we're all still asking. Why wouldn't we lend them our ears?
