Tight Lips and Loose Ears


Recently Amy and I had hit a skid of long days. 

Now don’t be jealous.  Of course you know by “long days” our day was no lengthier than yours.  We weren’t cruising around getting tons of extra things checked off our lists.  We had no more hours in the day than you or anyone else in the world.

Rather, you get what I mean by “long days,” because you’ve had them too, right?  The events and occasions and circumstances of the day drag out or go sideways, and they make other events and occasions and circumstances of the day feel heavy or burdensome, which make still other events and occasions and circumstances of the day – like the end of the day – feel long in coming. 

Well, what has struck me here on the sort-of-backside of the skid itself is how, in the thick of it, we were prone to cope with it all…

Now, I’m a little ashamed to say all what’s next.  In fact, is it wrong for me to hope some of you will be nodding your heads in agreement as you read it?  Because there’s nothing worse than telling folks your faults and finding them staring back blankly as though they have no idea what you’re talking about; never even touched their lives with a ten-foot pole.  Well maybe, if you really have no idea what I’m talking about, you’ll just skip to the Bible application part and pretend you never read about my shortcomings, okay?

…More often than not, one or both of us would come home after the “long day,” drag our weary self into the house, dropping stuff on the floor or chairs or countertops, kissing a kid and petting a dog in route to the kitchen or bedroom where one of us would meet the other and in short order begin to dump the day out in the middle of the floor like a bucket of muck or trash.  Then one or both of us was left to clean it all up.

See?  Ashamed.  Are you nodding?  If not, skip down the page please.

Of course it feels great in the moment.  You know that if you’ve done it.  Spilling all the frustrations and difficulties of the day out to each other; it’s therapeutic in a dysfunctional sort of way.  But what I realize on the backside is the mess it leaves only perpetuates the feelings, often escalating to anger toward people or places or things, and sometimes anger toward each other, or even our kids…who are totally innocent by standers in it all.

Ugh.  My head’s hung down.  You still nodding?  I don’t want to look up.

I read a book recently that was filled with lots of Bible references.  When I was done with the book I went back and wrote them all down.  Just the book-chapter-verse references filled three and a half pages of notebook paper, two columns each!  My intention was to consider them individually and reflect on them during my devotion times.  The first one was James 1:19-20.  Look it up.  It applies well here.

James says be “slow to speak, slow to get angry.”  If you skipped down the page, here’s a good place to pop back in.

I see the relationship between those two now.  Isn’t it so easy to get talking about all the whirring trials and troubles of a day and stir up a huffing storm of anger toward someone or something? 

James gives us an alternative.  Instead of being quick to talk it all up and out, be quick to hear.  Rather than spilling the long day all over the lives of those you love most, especially when it’s just done boiling on the front burner of the day, be quick to pause and listen in closely.

To what? 

James gets at it in verse 21:  “…receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.”

A whole lot of goodness in that text. 

At the end of those long days I was dying; wrecked and weary and washed up.  Somebody save me!  That’s how it felt, right?  You’ve been there…well not those of you who skipped down to this part.  James says listen in to the Word of God, which can rescue us in those moments! 

The “implanted word?” 

Good question.  Ultimately we’re talking about Jesus, the eternal logos of God.  But more practically we’re talking about scripture, the voice of Jesus to His Church. 

What needs to happen for Amy and I – and maybe for you too – is we need to come home after our “long days” and first meet with Jesus.  We need to hear from Him and listen in for healing or encouragement or resolve or whatever else may attend to the necessary reparations from the stuff of our day and produce in us the righteousness of God.  Truth is God enjoins us every moment as everything we need in that moment.  He won’t leave us wanting.    

But James has more to say.  Don’t stop there.  Hearing and listening in to the voice of Jesus is not the end of the matter.

In verse 22 and following James says, “But be doers of the word…”  The one who sidles up next to Jesus after a long day and listens to Jesus say…

“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you.” (John 14:27)

or

“If you forgive others their sins, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you.” (Matthew 6:14)

or

“First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:5)

…but then doesn’t do anything of it, is deceiving themselves.

It feels good, but doesn’t last.  The cancer of the long day needs more than a trite axiom or biblical meme to shoot us up or press us on.  We must take action or we are kidding ourselves. 

Hear the Word.  Do the Word. 

James’ example is funny, but so relatable.  Don’t be the guy who checks himself out in the mirror, notices the disheveled mess that he is, and then walks away thinking, meh, fixing nothing and forgetting everything.   

Rather, be the one who looks into the mirror, notices the disheveled appearance, and then straightens up; combs the hair, folds the collar, buttons the shirt, washes the eye boogers out, trims the nose hair, fixes the eyeliner, flosses the teeth, licks away the dried toothpaste. 

The hearer only is deceived.  The hearer AND the doer is blessed in their doing.  From this place Amy and I can proceed from the “long day” into the evening or weekend or whenever as a blessing to those we love most.  Maybe that could be the case for you too?

In short – and really this is applicable to far more than just the end of a long day, right – keep tight lips and loose ears.  Run to Jesus; practically speaking the Bible, listen in carefully, then obey, and reap the fruit of doing the long day well.

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