Quick to Listen, Slow to Speak, and Slow to Become Angry

 

“…because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.”

—James 1:20b

Are you someone who walks into a room and people mediately welcome you with open arms and, more importantly, open hearts?

I always particularly enjoyed the way his friends greeted Norm Peterson whenever he would enter the bar, “Cheers.” The rafters would fairly shake with the hearty shout, “Norm!”

Some people—and maybe you’re one—are blessed with a naturally suave gregariousness the engenders a warmly open welcome wherever they go. Almost everyone seems to like them. Almost everyone seems always glad to see them.

I am decidedly not such a person.

At a former church, many years ago, a dear, sweet lady looked me right in the eyes and said, “You are the coldest most aloof person I know.” Frankly, I was grateful that she shared her opinion of me to my face, rather than talking about me behind my back.

I’ve often admitted in various blog posts how painfully shy I am. And yet, I have no nervousness in speaking to crowds of people as large as 5,000, or in talking on the radio or in a Podcast. I am, frankly, socially inept. I am not very good at small talk. All these qualities create in me an “anti-Norm.”

In continually seeking for any help God might give me in blunting my sharp edges and helping me to become more winsome, I have often reminded myself of these words from James 1:19-20:

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.

Now there’s a formula I can wrap my mental arms around: quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.

If I could listen carefully to others in an engaging, respectful, and helpful way, hold my tongue and not be so quick to speak, and not become angry so quickly—why I might turn into a real, live human being.

Isn’t it amazing? God loves us so much that He always meets us at our point of greatness need.

I don’t know how you might feel about such things, but I’m sure glad God chose me to belong to Himself.

I celebrate with great joy the people I know who receive a well-deserved “Norm-like” welcome. And, I hope—I say with a chuckle—that at some point in my life I will earn the privilege of receiving such a welcome myself—if not here on earth, maybe in heaven.

 

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