by Jim Corbin
In the great American Wild West the title of ‘fastest gun’ was coveted. The greatest gunslinger could draw quicker than the eye could see (or so the stories say). For most, the life of a young and immature person is much like the fastest gun in the west: quick to speak and slow to listen. Young Christians are often characterized by an overflow of opinion followed by an unquenchable desire to be heard. They draw fast and unleash a fury of ammunition aimed at shooting down opposing ideas and the thoughts of those who seem to be far less informed about the things of God. For them, to listen simply provides more time to reload.
Many of us are like the gunslinger. Wherever we venture our six shooters are loaded and we are ready to use them quicker than the eye can see. We don’t learn much because we already know all we need to know about a deep relationship with the Lord and his people. What we may not know is, after all, just incidental. If people would just see things our way everything would fall into place. Listening remains a foreign concept.
In the Keel Life we can go deeper than this. Listen to Solomon’s words in Ecclesiastes 5:
Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong.
2 Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart
to utter anything before God.
God is in heaven
and you are on earth,
so let your words be few.
3 A dream comes when there are many cares,
and many words mark the speech of a fool.
It’s amazing what you hear when the noise of your own words is silenced. The Keel Life is where one ‘learns to listen and listens to learn.’
No comments:
Post a Comment