Wake Up, Look Up

[Music]

hello everybody thanks for listening to

wake up lookup a podcast where we

connect events happening in real time to

the Gospel of Jesus Christ I'm Zach wck

and in today's episode we're asking the

question why are people dying at work

this is based on an article that caught

my attention on CNN's website that was

talking about workplace murders which I

didn't realize are as frequent as they

really are in the past year

458 people were murdered at work and I

realized hey it's a big country 458

people is in the comparison to a lot of

things a pretty small number but that's

nine people a week nine people a week

are murdered at their workplace in fact

between 2018 and

2762 people people were murdered at

their workplace uh mass shootings since

1966 they did a study of where mass

shootings take place 30% of them are

what we would call workplace Shooters

people who are going to where they

worked or where they recently worked to

kill the people with whom they worked uh

that's a terrifying stat all these

statistics are terrifying but what

caught my attention even more was a a

line in the article from a psychologist

who who said that when they study these

workplace murders what they find is that

almost all of them are attributable to a

personal grievance that went

unchecked a personal grievance that went

unchecked that resulted in Murder it

makes me think of Ephesians the book of

Ephesians when Paul tells us to not let

the sun go down on our anger I think

most of us like to think that we have

our anger in check at least enough to

not murder someone maybe we mutter under

our breath in traffic or we make certain

hand motions to let people know when we

disapprove but we would never kill

anyone but the thing is I think the 458

people who did kill someone last year

probably would have said the same thing

about themselves a couple of years ago I

think we underestimate the destructive

force of Anger of how far it can take us

of how much it can rationalize if we let

it I also think that physically killing

someone isn't the only way to do

violence when you're angry I wonder how

many emotional deaths have taken place

how many relational deaths how many

people work day by day next to someone

who they hate or who hate them simply

because some kind of wrong was done and

it never got talked about listen

conflict resolution can be scary it can

be intimidating and it can be

uncomfortable it's pretty rough but not

as rough as murder listen how many of us

need to have a difficult conversation

with someone that we work with to say

hey you you bother me when you do this

you offended me when you said this I I'm

upset with you over that or how many of

us need to become the kind of person

with whom someone is upset or offended

and can come talk to them this might

just be a way for us as Christians to

shine in the workplac as we become the

easiest people to talk to when you're

upset with them or the people who always

come to you when they're upset with you

I think this is what Jesus meant when he

said we're the salt of the earth we're

the light of the world we do things in a

different way in a country where people

are getting angry all the time for a

variety of reasons and bringing that

anger in with them to work in a country

that is routinely and regularly isolated

from each other so that even when I'm

mad at you I don't talk to you about it

Christians can show A Better Way Forward

who do you need to apologize to who do

you need to hear apologize to you listen

don't let the sun go down on your anger

don't let your workplace become violent

in any sense of the word simply because

you're unwilling or unable to engage

someone in a difficult conversation that

can lead to reconciliation hey thanks so

much for watching this episode of wake

up lookup while you're here take a

minute to like And subscribe really

helps us get the word out don't hesitate

to leave a review wherever you might

find this podcast on an audio level and

help spread the word and hey while

you're here check out all the other

content we have at Christ Community

Chapel on YouTube some of those videos

are popping up on the screen now click

on one