day 2530: Keeping Cool

“And I know it is important to love him with all my heart and all my understanding and all my strength, and to love my neighbor as myself.”

If you have ever taken a course or read anything about conflict resolution you know that de-escalating emotions and tension is job one.  There are many ways to do so and having a full arsenal of tricks in our bags really help. I read what Stephen Colbert’s Executive Producer told him about how to think about humor and the role of humor in helping us through times of tension, stress and sometimes anger.  Colbert said, “We, all of us, but I specifically, are carbon rods that get lowered into the radioactive pool of what’s happening today, and our job is to absorb all that radiation and then radiate it back to the audience, as a much lower rad-level”.  And that can be what it feels like in the workplace when tensions are running high.  We as the ones who are to resolve conflict have to take the heat and then lower it down in others by keeping and exuding our cool.

I’m self-admittedly not good at keeping my cool when it comes to certain things in our culture.  I should just stay off of Twitter (I’m not alone in that one) – smile. I do think that as Believers in our workplaces that we are held to be the peace keepers and we are the ones who should take on the removal of conflict from our offices and work.  But to do so, we have to have the cool, calmness and peace of God within us.  When we come up and out of the “radiation pool” the only thing that should be warm is our hearts towards others.

Reference: Mark 12:33 (New Living Translation)