Work can be a very stressful place. I often find it hard to explain to people why I feel so drained from work. Part of it is that I am an introvert, so to have my office open to students and coworkers streaming in and out is exhausting. Part of it is that taking public transportation and walking to work exposes me to winter elements that give me fatigue. But I think part of it is that there is a spirit of unhealthiness at my workplace that is hard to put into words.
I actually came to a clearer sense of this yesterday, when two colleagues who have significant power at school happened to be out of the office on the same day. It seemed to me that the overall atmosphere was much lighter, and that teachers were interacting with one another with a spirit of camaraderie and support rather than complaining and backstabbing. Just to make sure I wasn't making things up, I asked my office-suite-mate if she noticed it too. She said she did...
Sometimes people carry a certain spirit--for example, a spirit of bitterness, fear, control--that they are not even quite aware of. Scripture says we are not to "wrestle...against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." I wonder what it would look like for me to resist/pray against unhealthy spirits in other people while being totally for them as people. I have to confess that it's sometimes hard for me to separate a person from what they carry, but I'd like to try to look at others the way Jesus did--with compassion and with love.
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