Notas del episodio
Monday
In our post-pandemic world, working from home on Monday may be a part of your workweek rhythm.
Breakfast in the kitchen.
No traffic to fight.
Homework.
Desk and laptop in the home office.
Inbox full.
Inbox opened.
Mean-worded email on Monday morning.
The mean words flip your anger switch. Email response drafted in fury! The reply icon seems larger, glaring with a harsh blue hue, standing between you and your coworker on the other side of cyberspace.
Lying between the hills of the mean email and your angry draft is a valley of time – a time to decide, a time to regroup, a time to pause, a time to rethink. You have a Bible verse on the wall in your office in bold letters: “Let all that you do be done in love (1 Cor. 16:14, NASB).
The reminder grabs your heart – Stop; Pause; Reflect. Respond instead of Repay. You pray, asking the Lord Jesus for the strength to love. Your request for strength to love is not weakness but meekness, not folly but wisdom. You return to your device, delete the email, and draft another one:
Kind tone.
Considerate words.
Careful explanations.
You press the reply button with a gentle touch...
But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love (1 Thess. 5:8a)
Reflection:
- How will you respond to mean-spirited people today? Even if you must be firm, please ask God to grant you grace to be firm in love.
- In what sense is agape love a breastplate of protection for you in your interactions with difficult people?