The Correction of a Quiet Spirit.

"If your boss is angry at you, don't quit! A quiet spirit can overcome even great mistakes." Ecclesiastes 10:4, New Living Translation

"You can’t win a war in your head," admits Chris Kyle in American Gun: A History of the US in 10 Firearms, "but if your head ain’t right, you’ve got no chance at all."

Solomon comes to much the same conclusion in Ecclesiastes 10:4. He insists on the integral nature of the ability to maintain perspective in problem-solving. Where we tend to measure both our outrage and our demonstrated determination by the size of the obstacle in front of us, Solomon coaches a deliberate tampering down of our reaction. The quiet spirit he teaches us to draw from allows room for creative inspiration and patient progress.

I find his setting for this life lesson instructive also. Surely, having a boss who is angry at us or disappointed in us can prompt some healthy introspection, but what does King Solomon know of bosses? Perhaps he has some insight into our most unreasonable and capricious boss, our flesh. That boss, we begin to admit with experience, alternates between demanding perfection and expecting progress without effort. Listening to the quiet spirit God plants within and begins to empower is a healthier option than taking orders from the flesh St. Francis of Assisi appropriately dubs Brother Ass all day.

Where the quiet spirit seems hopelessly out-shouted, Spurgeon in Morning and Evening offers some assistance from outside us.  "A deep sense of gratitude," his experience teaches him, "will nourish Christian zeal." Through more grateful eyes, we will see the advantages of this day on which our flesh has no claim. With a more grateful heart, we can root our zeal in worship rather than overreaction to earthly circumstances.

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