Reconciliation in the family business

While I’m working on my next series about “wilderness” in the family business, I’m posting a few popular reflections from the early years. This one is about reconciliation between Jacob and Esau. Enjoy!

The last time Jacob had seen his brother Esau was twenty years prior. Then, Esau was mad enough to kill him because Jacob had stolen his blessing. Now, Jacob was clearly worried about how his brother Esau would receive him — and Esau was coming at him with 400 men!

But Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept. (Genesis 33:4)

Consider what Esau had to overcome in order to “embrace” his brother. From parental favoritism and personality differences early in life, to Jacob taking advantage of Esau’s hunger in the birthright-for-stew trade, to Jacob’s deception and the stealing of Esau’s blessing. Yet Esau not only welcomes Jacob, but weeps with him!

There is always a list of offenses between family members who are in business together. When you feel hurt by a family member with whom you work (and surely you will), the question is whether you will be able to embrace your relative in the months and years after the wrongdoing. Will you be able to let go of the past and focus on the future of your relationship? Lewis Smedes said “To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.”

Have you been hurt by a family member? What would it take for you to embrace that person?