The Daily CHEW™
Moving God’s Love from Head to Heart for Christian Professionals
I was being flown in to a mid-sized logistics company in the Midwest to train the C-suite on how Myers-Briggs could set them and their direct reports up for success. I had put significant work into this training — the Chief Sales Officer had seen what we did to help his sales teams pick up personality type on the fly, adjust their pitch, create win-win scenarios, and solve real needs even if it meant walking away from the deal. He wanted that for his peers.
As I buckled my seatbelt on the plane, I got a text from him: the CFO and CMO had gotten into a massive argument again. Their teams were arguing too. It was a mess. He had no idea how we were going to do the training.
When I walked into that boardroom, the tension was almost unbearable. I flashed a bright smile, said hello, introduced myself — and hardly anyone smiled or even looked up. As I set up the whiteboards, I realized how pointless it would be to try to deliver a personality-type training into a room that could not stand to be in the same space. So I said it out loud: It is obvious we are not going to do this training. Why don’t we use the time to resolve the tension.
They went at it. It was bad — four-letter words, accusations, out of control. So while they argued, I wrote on the whiteboard what I believed the essence of each side was. They corrected what was off but felt met and heard. Then we tried something. After they each named what the other was doing that was making their professional life miserable, I asked them to tell the story behind it — which part of the other’s accusation was true.
Sixty seconds of silence. For this ENFJ, staying quiet was excruciating — I literally put my hand over my mouth.
Then the CFO started talking. He grew up Irish Catholic in one of the poorest areas of the country, one of eleven children. He described how every meal carried pain — his mother chose who got to eat and who did not, and the ones who did not still had to stay at the table and watch. He broke down. Others in the room started to cry. Then the CMO, in tears, looked over and said: I get you now. So much more. I think I know how to help.
The CMO apologized for marketing blunders his team had made. The CFO apologized for blocking the CMO’s budget. They made up. They learned how to work together. They had a few squabbles after that — but they ultimately turned things around. The room that was ready to split apart became a team that could fight fair and repair fast.
That is what happens when God’s love breaks through a boardroom — not through a technique, but through one man’s willingness to tell the truth about what shaped him, and another man’s willingness to listen. Saturday’s anchor — Living and Leading from a Loved Heart — taught that the heart you lead from changes every room. That day, two hearts changed — and the room followed.
Clarity
Is there a conflict on my team or in my life where I have been arguing about the surface issue — and have never asked for the story underneath it?
Hear
**”Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger”** (James 1:19, ESV). God does not say resolve it faster. He says hear first. Scripture reveals that the path to resolution runs through listening — and that God reshapes teams and relationships when leaders receive the discipline of hearing before defending.
Exchange
If I really believed God’s love is redemptive enough to turn a room full of accusation into a room full of understanding, how would that change the way I approach the unresolved tension I have been avoiding?
Walk (30–90 seconds)
Name one conflict — on your team, with a colleague, in your family — where you have been arguing the surface. Before this week ends, ask one question you have not asked yet: What is the story behind this for you? Then stay quiet long enough to hear the answer. If this is the only thing I do from this CHEW today, it is enough.
From Devotional Insight to Personal Change
Ryan C. Bailey, M.A.C.C., has spent 34 years helping Christian leaders, couples, and teams move from insight to heart-level change through counseling, coaching, and consulting. If you want confidential help applying this in your leadership, work, or relationships, start here.
With you on the journey,
Ryan
If you had to put this into one sentence for today, what would you say God is inviting you to rest in or return to?
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