Confrontation
This is definitely NOT my favorite thing to do. Unfortunately, when working with people, confrontation is common and necessary. There are times when what I heard was not what was said. It’s important that communication that surrounds confrontation is clear and dripping with kindness. Dave Ramsey says, “To be unclear is being unkind”. I recently read a book called “Crucial Conversations” and my eyes were open as to how often these actually occur. I’m not always prepared for a crucial conversation, but I should always be keenly aware of when I start having one with another person.
Moses & Aaron were prepped by God while on their way back home. They begin to follow God’s plan of confronting Pharaoh. Check this out….
1After this presentation to Israel’s leaders, Moses and Aaron went and spoke to Pharaoh. They told him, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Let my people go so they may hold a festival in my honor in the wilderness.”
2 “Is that so?” retorted Pharaoh. “And who is the Lord? Why should I listen to him and let Israel go? I don’t know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go.”
3 But Aaron and Moses persisted. “The God of the Hebrews has met with us,” they declared. “So let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness so we can offer sacrifices to the Lord our God. If we don’t, he will kill us with a plague or with the sword.”
4 Pharaoh replied, “Moses and Aaron, why are you distracting the people from their tasks? Get back to work! 5 Look, there are many of your people in the land, and you are stopping them from their work.”(Exodus 5:1-5 NLT)
Pharaoh did not like this idea. He did what a lot of people do in confrontation, he decides to go on the offense. When confrontation takes place, listening often stops and the conversation becomes more about the confrontation than about the topic that was brought up. Confrontation is often taken personally even when it is about work product or another topic all together. There have been times in my life (I was much younger) when I “wore my feelings on my sleeves”. The least little confrontation might get me frustrated back then. Over the years I’ve learned that misunderstood confrontation can leave a path of destruction. This is not middle school where my emotions are all over the place. I must keep my emotion in check when confrontation takes place and listen carefully to what is being communicated.
When Moses and Aaron confronted Pharaoh, he went sideways. He took it a bit personal and when on the offensive demanding more production from the Hebrew people who were his slaves. It jumped out to me that they said the Lord would “kill them with a plague and sword” if they didn’t go worship in the wilderness. The plagues and the swords are coming. This confrontation didn’t go well for the people of Israel, but this confrontation was setting up more conversations and while Pharaoh didn’t know God, he was about to get to know Him.
I would be wise to be gentle in confrontation but also clear, concise and direct. I would be wise to communicate my heart as well as my observations. I can’t take off the Presence of God like a coat. I want His Presence to be noticed in me even in the midst of confrontation or crucial conversation.
Pressing On!
Dwayne