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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. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it\u2014not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it\u2014they will be blessed in what they do. (James 1:19-25)

The Bible tells us the story of God\u2019s mighty acts in the unfolding of covenant history. As one revelation in two testaments the Bible reveals God\u2019s will and the sweep of God\u2019s redeeming work. (OWBTG 33)

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The thing about James is that he gets to the point.\xa0 It\u2019s pretty simple by his reckoning.\xa0 When it comes to the Word, there are three easy steps to follow.\xa0 Stop talking, start listening, and do something with what you hear.\xa0

Stopping is no easy task, though, is it?\xa0 It\u2019s not just talking that we\u2019re guilty of.\xa0 It\u2019s a chatter of constant activity.\xa0 Some of that is words\u2014but more so it\u2019s movement.\xa0 It\u2019s our lips moving, our fingers moving, our feet moving, our cars moving, our lives moving: everything moving.\xa0 Fast.\xa0 Constantly on the go.\xa0 Tackling to-do lists and leisure activities, assignments and social engagements.\xa0 It\u2019s a cultural problem.\xa0 We work more and sleep less than any other developed nation in the world, second only to the US.\xa0 And so \xa0S-T-O-P-I-N-G \xa0takes a great work of cross-cultural slow down: fighting our own feelings of getting left out and left behind in order to keep the boundaries we\u2019ve been called to and take our place as creatures rather than gods of our own making.\xa0 It\u2019s hard, but it\u2019s necessary if we are to hear the word and do it.\xa0 So, first things first\u2014you\u2019ve got to stop.

Listening is also hard though.\xa0 There are a million voices, videos, pictures, and messages flying our way in a myriad of formats. The built world of infrastructure, technology, and architecture tell us who we are and what to do.\xa0 So do schools, advertisers, and governments.\xa0 So do friends, family, and influencers.\xa0 Of course, God does too: but his voice is still, small, and easily drowned out by the others.\xa0 That\u2019s why we need to stop: but listening takes more than that.\xa0 It\u2019s an act of focused attention\u2014of cutting through the distractions of the heart and mind long enough to attend to God and what he is saying to us.\xa0 But listening also takes longer than that.\xa0 It\u2019s not enough to focus in and hear God in the moment: we\u2019ve got to hold on to what we\u2019ve heard and remember it through the day and week!\xa0 Our focus and attention have to carry on such that the word works through and transforms our habits of attention throughout our lives!

These are the pre-conditions of Christian action though.\xa0 That might sound strange, because if we\u2019re anything, we\u2019re doers!\xa0 But without stopping our doing long enough to listen, the doing we do is our own alone.\xa0 In order for the Word to flow through our lives (and not just our own ideas of helping others and being good people), we have to stop and we have to listen so that God\u2019s will and work are done on earth, and not just our own.\xa0

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