REFLEXES TELL ALL

What I do without thinking says more about me than what I do when I have plenty of time to process my response. If I don’t like my gut response, it’s the clearest indicator for me that something is wrong inside. If I respond on a whim in a way that reflects the character of God, it’s the clearest indicator that God is in me.

Similarly, as a parent when my kid’s reflexive response is not the one I want to see, I need to put on my x-ray glasses and look past the reaction into the source. Something else is going on and I need to identify it so that I can address it and parent in it.

As a leader, the truth is, I’m really not that interested in watching how someone can map out their plan. I’m not that impressed with written answers on applications. I’m more interested in how they respond when their plan goes the way of the toilet. How one responds in tragedy or crisis tells volumes more about their inner soul than any pre-meditated response.

That’s when you discover the real truth about someone. Reflexes tell all.

I got a first hand reminder of this last night as I was playing indoor soccer. A goalie on the other team got his finger hurt when he tried to stop an incoming attacker by diving on the ball. The result was his finger got stepped on or something and it started to bleed. He got so upset that he went on a yelling, cussing, screaming 3 year old tantrum fit and then wiped his bloody pinky on the refs Jersey in anger. By his response, you’d have expected his finger to have been amputated. It was the most ridiculous, childish, character revealing episode I have seen in a long time. I wouldn’t let that guy lead anything. If he was an employee, I would have fired him on the spot. If he was a volunteer, I would have fired him all the same. As it is, the soccer field banned him from play for a year. They did it cuz he wiped blood on an employee in anger and used his potentially diseased fluids as a weapon. I would have kicked him off simply for revealing that deep down, he is just an angry child in a man’s body.

Looks can be deceiving. Reflexes are not.

Jesus was right. Out of the overflow of the mouth the heart speaks.

Good people bring good things out of the good stored up in their heart, and evil people bring evil things out of the evil stored up in their heart. For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. -Luke 6:45

Perhaps this is why Solomon warned as well.