Three friends heard what had happened to Job and traveled to see him. When they saw him, they wept. Then they sat with him on the ground for seven days and seven nights, and nobody said a word.
That silence is the best thing they do in the whole book.
Then they open their mouths. For the next thirty chapters they explain to Job why this happened and what he should do. Each speech is more certain than the last, and Job is more alone after every one.
The idea. Presence earns the right to speak, and many times presence is the whole job. When someone on your team is hurting, your explanation is not what the person needs. The person needs to know the leader saw and stayed. Silence feels like doing nothing. To the person sitting in the ashes, silence is not nothing.
The action for this week. The next time someone tells you something hard, do not fix, explain, or compare the situation to your own story. Say, “That is heavy. I am here.” Then stop talking and count to ten.
“And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.”Job 2:13, ESV
Jake
P.S. Listening is one of five scores in the Self-Check. Take the LEADS Self-Check.