ON THE VANGUARD

QUICK AND SLOW
“My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.”
James 1:19-20

Do you remember that tale about the tortoise and the hare? In a race to prove who was faster, the two competed against each other. The rabbit started off quickly as expected, while the turtle found a steady pace. Soon, with such a great lead, the hare became arrogant and proud and began to find a nice place in which to nap for a bit. Sometime later, the turtle slowly passed by the hare, never changing his pace. In the final stretch, the rabbit awoke to find that not only had he been passed by the tortoise, but that the tortoise was only inches away from the finish line. Even with his mad dash push to the end, the hare still lost to the tortoise. The key to the victory was the persistence of the tortoise.
Now while today I want to reference this tale, I do not want to speak about it with persistence as the key focus. Instead, what God shared with me this morning were the moments in my life when God commands me to be quick verses being slow. Specifically, God spoke to me this morning concerning the words of James 1:19-20. The passage reads, “My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.” In this passage we are advised of three key details and the speed in which we are to run to them.
Let us start with the quick sprint. First James reminds us that we are to be quick to listen. As a parent I find myself struggling at times with this idea. As a follower of God I find this even more of a challenge. In my parenting I sometimes feel as though I already know what my kids are going to say so I either tune them out or I talk over them. With God I find that in moments when I feel I know what He is going to say I do them same. But the truth of what James is saying rests in the definitions of these two words. Be TACHUS to AKOUO. Tachus is Greek for quick or speedy. This term seems to translate pretty accurately. The term Akouo in Greek means to be endowed with the faculty of hearing, to understand the teaching, to not be deaf, and to consider what is being said. Suddenly ‘listen’ means a little more. Many times in my walk with God I have failed to understand the teaching, have been deaf on purpose, and have not meditated on what was being told to be. Well no wonder I fail if I waltz at my own slow pace in the times when I am supposed to be quick.
On the flip side, I find myself struggling with going quick in the areas I am supposed to be slow in. James writes in the same verse that we are to be BRADUS to LALEO and BRADUS to become ORGE. Bradus translates into slow, but a deeper translation is dull, inactive, hesitant to apprehend. When was the last time I allowed myself to be slow in these areas. And to define our other terms, Laleo is defined as uttering a voice or emitting a sound, or to declare one’s mind. The term Orge is defined as angry, agitation, impulsive and violent emotion, and punishment. Honestly, I am convicted. I find that I can often become quick to speak my mind and become agitated. I find I live a life of opposites.
Yet as we close, I want to offer to you the challenge I feel impressed for me today as well. James continues on in this thought in verse 20 where he notes that the Orge of man does not bring about the righteous life God desires. Basically, my failure to be slow to speak and slow to anger does not make Him happy. My wrong behavior does not bring glory to Him in any means. That said, I want to change the way I behave. I want to obey and train myself to listen to others, especially at the risk of humbling myself for His glory to do it. Equally, I want to come to a point where I force myself if needed, to slow down. Instead of blurting out my words, I want to be slow in how I respond. Instead of jumping into fits of anger and impulse, I want to be slow to not let my agitation rule me. This is not a behavior I can grasp overnight, but it is a behavior I need to step up to the plate and begin working on now with God’s help.