Listen and Do: James 1: 19-25
A week or so ago, a friend emailed me a cartoon. It was two people sitting at a table having dinner. The man was talking and gesturing in a loud and grand way based on the the way he was drawn, and the woman was sitting at the table quietly giving him what I’ve always heard was one of those “if looks could kill, buddy,” kind of looks. The caption read, “Let me interrupt your training and expertise with my unwarranted, loud confidence.” I can identify was trying to talk about a point of criminal law, and I was interrupted by a very outspoken guy asking, “Well, how would you know. That sounds made up!” Routinely I get the pleasure of explaining that I’m a criminal lawyer with 10 years of experience. And I often get to add that just because you don’t like it, doesn’t make it any less the law.
James talks about this problem. We have, in our modern society, utterly failed to listen. And even when we do listen, we do so only with the goal of retorting or spouting something back at the speaker. When we fail to listen, it affects all parts of our lives, but most poignantly our relationship with God because we fail to listen and do as God directs, either doing nothing at all or the opposite of what God directs.
First, we must listen. There are five ways we are told to do this in the text in James. We must be quick to listen. It is important that we do this quickly and not reluctantly. Giving your time and attention to someone is a sign of respect and trust, but giving your time and attention to God is an expectation. After all, God is the creator, sustainer, and savior of our lives. To the One who is all those things, we should give our attention. We should do this not just to mull it over, to reply, to debate, or to run away like Jonah. We should listen quickly with the intent on truly hearing and processing the message.
We must also be slow to speak. An old wise saying based loosely on Proverbs 17:28 reminds us “Better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.” Typically, the quote is attributed to Mark Twain, thought he may or may not have said it. Much of this desire to say something comes from a need within us to be right, and I believe that can become an idol in our lives. When you choose to show that you’re right or correct above all else, there is a cost. It can cost you a job if you have to be right to your employer. It can cost you a relationship if a person no longer wants to be around you because you’ve become an obnoxious know it all. From being a lawyer, I know that being right can win your argument, but it may make things rather lonely in your world of perfection. The better way often is to pause, to listen, and to think. Gentleness is sometimes more important than being right.
We must also be slow to get angry. In our modern politics and society, anger is the default for all things. But the Bible is clear over and over that resentment is not a Christian characteristic. God calls us to be patient, kind, gentle, tender-hearted, and loving with those that anger and frustrate us. You may be able to yell someone into submission, but you can never shout them into redemption. I still believe that love and grace can change even the most angry and hardened heart. I still believe that the love of Christ can wash away bitterness and resentment. Therefore, be slow to anger.
In order to listen we must also rid ourselves of the garbage in our lives. Do we bring in things that build our anger and resentment, that make us miserable and pull us away from God’s love and our obligation to be people reaching out the lost and wayward in the world? Or do we deal and bring into our lives thing that foster peace, happiness, joy, and Godliness? It’s a simple fact. If you eat junk food constantly, you will be come sick and unhealthy. The same is true spiritually. What you bring into your lives will determine your spiritual well-being, so bring in things that are Godly. Humbly accept what God would plant in your life. We may not always like God’s message, but we cannot refuse to listen to God just because the message is difficult.
It reminds me of a pastor friend. He began to feel the call to go to a certain church, one that had great difficulty in the past. He was happy at his present church and ignored the heart tug from God, the open pathway there. Instead he said that it would take a burning bush before he would go. One day he stopped at a red-light. The person in front of him threw a used cigarette out of the car, and it hit a bush. The bush burst into huge flames shocking everybody. Later he learned that earlier the same day a gas can had fallen off of a truck dousing the bush in gasoline. It was his burning bush. We must listen to God.
But we must also do what God says to us. If not we risk forgetting the message and the meaning, or not understanding it. Have you ever thought, “Well, I don’t need a list. I can remember these things at the grocery store?” Only, once you are standing in the middle of aisle three, you think, “Why did I come here, again?” The same is true if we fail to act on God’s messages. They will get lost, both in impact and action. God’s Word is meant to be active and a call to action. In the Great Commission, we are told to go OUT to heal, to teach, to save, and baptize. That requires action—to go! God’s word also calls us to be responsible. Preparing to listen, and being willing to listen to God is a choice we make, just like following what God says is also a choice we make. James tells us that faith implores us to listen to God and to do as God directs. It falls under that obedience part of our faith. And it requires us to be humble.
One of the greatest things we can give up in this life is the desire to be right. Only One has the right answer to all of life, and that is God. We stumble around as best we can with our intellect, our experience, and some limited direction from God. And yet we have to be right all the time—it blocks us from hearing God, from listening to the wisdom from others, from being the clay that God desires to mold and work out into something beautiful, beloved, and crafted to be just like God, made in God’s image. Be still in life and in prayer to listen. God is still speaking to us, and the question is this: have we made room in our soul to hear it?