📖 TREE 330: Understand quickly. Respond slowly.

Throwback Monday – TREE 94

One.

A couple thousand years ago, a guy named James who was (or maybe wasn’t) Jesus’s brother wrote a letter in which he said: “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry” (James 1:19, NIV).

He wrote the letter in Greek. The ancient Greek word he used for “listen” does not just mean to hear. This Greek word for hear means:

• to attend to and consider what has been said

• to understand and perceive the sense of what is said.

Here’s a small example from last week (in January 2021) when I totally didn’t follow James’s advice. A colleague sent me a message on Teams. I was busy and zapped a message back without thinking about the context of her message. She thought I was being sarcastic and jerky and replied about us not falling out. I had to apologise and explain that I wasn’t cross at all, I just didn’t think. Then we had to have a call to make sure we were good. A bunch of unhappy emotion got released and time was wasted because I didn’t take a little time to understand what she was telling me.

The habit of seeking understanding protects other people’s emotional wellbeing. It protects your emotional wellbeing. And it makes you less stupid.

Two.

Josephine the pony is learning what it’s like to be a rabbit. Tyler the bird is using the internet to reinforce the opinions he already holds.

Three.

I like Tori Amos a lot, in small doses. This small dose from her latest album is superb.

Once upon a time, I was a pastor. This week, I’m sharing a few snippets from the bible that have stuck with me.

Grow slowly
Jeff