I Defended Them Before I Knew

You said it on Friday, out front, in front of about six people.

Somebody had made a remark about the whole business and you stepped in. You said that you had been under that name for eleven years and that whatever people are saying, that is not how these people operate.

You believed every word of it. That is the thing to hold onto. It was not a company line and nobody told you to say it. You said it because you have eleven years of evidence and you thought the remark was unfair.

You found out on Tuesday.

Not everything. Enough. Enough to know that the remark was closer to the truth than what you said in reply to it.

And the man you said it to is somebody you see twice a week.

Here is where you have been sitting since Tuesday.

You have not said anything and you have started being slightly less available out front. Not hiding exactly. Timing your movements. And you know exactly what you are doing.

The specific fear is that going back and saying anything makes you look like a man who does not know what is happening in his own arrangement, which is a hard thing for a man of eleven years standing.

There is a proverb about answering too early and it is more merciful than it first sounds.

He that answereth a matter before he heareth it

Proverbs gives a short judgment on a very common thing.

He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him. (Proverbs 18:13, King James Version)

Notice precisely what it names. Answering before hearing.

Not being wrong. Not being loyal. Not defending somebody. The specific fault is speed, and speed only.

You have been charged with the one thing you actually did rather than with everything, and the Holy Spirit is the one who is that exact. Proverbs 18:13 puts the fault on answering before hearing rather than on the loyalty in it, and He is not adding anything to the account.

That distinction matters because you have been carrying a much larger charge than the verse gives you.

The charge in your own head reads: I am a fool, I do not know what is happening, I stood up in public and was wrong about the people I have worked under for eleven years.

The verse says something much smaller. You spoke before you had heard it. That is all it says.

You are carrying more than the written word puts on you, and it is written that the folly is in the order rather than in the motive. The Spirit of God is the one who reduces a charge to its actual size, and Proverbs 18 does not enlarge it.

And there is something in the word matter that is worth catching.

He that answereth a matter. A matter is a thing that has facts in it, which are gathered over time. It is not a feeling and it is not an opinion.

You did not have the facts on Friday. Nobody in your position did. And the proverb is not describing a man who ignored facts; it is describing the ordinary human tendency to answer at the speed of loyalty rather than at the speed of information.

You were answering at the speed of eleven years, and the Holy Spirit is the one who knows which of those was operating on Friday. Scripture names the timing rather than the heart behind it, and Proverbs 18:13 is about the first one.

Why going back is the small version

Let me deal with the fear, because it is the only thing keeping you from a two minute conversation.

The fear is that going back makes a man look like somebody who does not know his own arrangement.

Here is what is actually true: he already knows you did not know. He worked that out on Tuesday, the same as you did, probably from the same place.

So the choice is not between looking uninformed and looking informed. That choice closed on Tuesday. The choice now is between a man who says something about it and a man who does not.

You are choosing between two versions of a fact rather than between two facts, and the written word puts the fault on the speaking rather than on the not knowing. The Spirit of God is the one who shows a man which choice is actually in front of him.

And here is the part that will get you out of the timing.

Being slightly less available out front is a much larger statement than anything you could say. Everybody notices that. Nobody misses a man managing where he stands.

Two minutes of speech ends it. Six months of timing your movements does not, and it says a great deal more about a man than a wrong sentence on a Friday ever could.

You are able to end it in two minutes rather than manage it for six months, and the Holy Spirit is the one who makes going back the strong version of this. It is written that the folly is in answering early rather than in going back, and Proverbs 18:13 is why the early answer is the only fault in it.

Go back to the same man

So here is the thing to do, and it is the same person, and it is this week.

Go and find him. Say: what I said on Friday, I spoke before I knew. I still do not know all of it, and I should not have answered you like that.

Then stop. Do not now say the opposite thing about the name over your door, because you still do not have the facts, and answering early in the other direction is the same fault twice.

You are correcting the order rather than switching sides, and Proverbs 18:13 names the speed as the whole of the problem. The Spirit of God is the one present for that, and He is not asking you to now say something you do not know either.

And one plain thing, because this site will not skip it. If what you have learned means something genuinely wrong happened, then honesty about it is right and so is saying so through the proper route. What that route is belongs with somebody qualified rather than with an article, and nothing here asks a man to cover a wrong thing.

You are not being asked to cover anything, and the Holy Spirit is the one who is clear about that. The written word puts the fault on the early answer rather than on the telling, and Proverbs 18 has no version where covering is the faithful option.

Then open in the morning and stand out front where you always stand.