Emotional Overhead

9-15-2010 by Boyd Bailey

Emotional Overhead


“Drive out the mocker, and out goes strife; quarrels and insults are ended.” Proverbs 22:10

Are you consumed by conflict with someone at work or with whom you have a personal relationship? Have you tried to appease them, confront them and pray for them to no avail? Unfortunately, no amount of cajoling or arguing can change the heart of a mocker. Until they come face to face with brokenness from God, they will not truly change for Christ’s sake.

Like a lease or mortgage creates financial overhead, so does a person intent on disrupting the culture of a company or a family. Mockers are made up of insecure individuals full of a grandiose self-image. Pride and jealousy drive them to discredit anyone who gets in the way of their man-made agenda. Mockers angrily attack even the most loving of heart.

"Whoever corrects a mocker invites insult; whoever rebukes a wicked man incurs abuse” (Proverbs 9:7).

It is not worth carrying this type of emotional overhead on the books of your brain. You wake up in the middle of the night fearful of what may happen next if you don’t walk the fine line of pleasing this person at work. Your preoccupation with meeting their expectations has caused you to neglect other important relationships. Continual drama from the same source is a recipe for confusion and contempt from the team.

“Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers” (Psalm 1:1).

After confronting a mocker things very likely will get worse. It’s because a scorner does not receive a rebuke or seek wisdom, “A mocker resents correction; he will not consult the wise” (Proverbs 15:12). Some relationships are a black hole of wasted time and energy. You may have to make the bold move to remove this person before their path of destruction continues its course. Let the disloyal go for the sake of the loyal whole.

You can still pray for them and love on them from a distance. Indeed, overwhelming emotional overhead is not a cost you can afford with your own emotional budget. Yes, we bear the burdens of those who are broken before God, but not those trying to break others. The Lord extends His grace to the humble, but mocks the proud consumed in their mockery.

“He mocks proud mockers but gives grace to the humble” (Proverbs 3:34).

Who in my life do I need to let go, for the sake of the whole?

Related Readings: 2 Kings 16:3; Job 17:2; Isaiah 29:20; Mark 9:28-29; 1 John 4:18