Latest / Prayer Before Work / They Turned Down a 7 PM Call And Nothing Bad Happened - Prayer Before Work
Transcript
- Sean Graver: So someone younger than you on your team turned down a 7 PM quick call last week, said they'd handle it first thing in the morning instead, and the strangest part is nothing bad happened. There was no fallout, no consequence. I mean the world kept turning exactly like it always does. Well hey, this is Sean, and welcome back to Prayer Before Work. But the listener who shared the story said if you're anything like me, some part of you noticed that and felt a little strange about it. Maybe even a little annoyed if you're honest, because you can remember a version of yourself years ago who would have taken that call without a second thought and probably felt quite a sense of pride about it afterwards, like answering the phone at seven PM was proof of something. Well, looking back at that now, next to someone who just calmly said tomorrow morning and really meant it, it might be saying more about you than it does about them. But there's an interesting scene late in the book of Job where a young man, his name is Elihu or Elehu, depending on how you want to pronounce it, has been very quietly sitting while a group of much older, much more experienced men argue with Job about his suffering. So Elihu waited because that was the custom, respecting his elders' age and years. But eventually he speaks up anyway, and he explains why, and it's in Job thirty two, starting in verse seven, where he says, I said let days speak and many years teach wisdom, but it is the spirit in a man, the breath of the almighty that makes him understand. It is not the old who are wise, nor the aged who understand what is right. And that's a pretty bold thing to say in a culture that assumed age automatically equaled wisdom. And I don't think Alehu was trying to disrespect his elders, but I do think he was refusing to assume that living more years automatically means someone has it all figured out. Or for that matter, that someone with fewer years automatically doesn't. So if a younger coworker just modeled something healthier than what you've learned to normalize, Might be wise to pay attention and maybe learn something. Now, this doesn't erase what you know from experience, it just means the learning doesn't only flow one direction. I mean, just ask yourself what you'd have to unlearn to actually work the way they just did, and whether you're willing to. So let's pray. Well, God, it's humbling. To learn something from someone with fewer years than us, especially when it points out a habit that we've been proud of that maybe wasn't as healthy as we thought. But give us the humility to actually receive wisdom regardless of who it comes from. Help us unlearn the things that were never actually serving us well, no matter how long we've been doing them. And we pray in Jesus' name, Amen. Now go make today count.