'Don't fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don't act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like.'
- James chapter 1, verses 22–24 (The Message)
In my early twenties I spent a lot of money getting as big as I could. I spent about $70 a week on protein and creatine powders, and I was fairly obsessive about fitting as many workouts as I could into a week.
One night I actually lost my short-term memory temporarily—an adverse effect of one of the supplements I was taking. I had not long finished training when I bolted down the stairs, adrenaline pumping—but when I got downstairs to the kitchen I couldn't remember why I was there.
It was the strangest feeling. I didn't feel hungry. I couldn't remember what being hungry felt like. Everything was a blur. I found myself standing in the kitchen utterly confused and troubled.
I did the only thing I could think of. I picked up the phone and dialled my brother's number.
'I just came down to the kitchen and I can't remember what I wanted!' I blurted out when he picked up the phone, and then I started crying.
My brother was aware of how focused I was on training and knew I was taking a lot of supplements.
'What are you taking mate?' he asked. 'Whatever it is, stop it.'
Losing your mind
It is the scariest thing to lose your wits—your sense. James compares hearing God's word and not acting on it with forgetting who you are and what you look like. I understand the severity of the comparison. James isn't being light-hearted about this.
Just think about it for a second.
What could ever happen to a person to make him forget his own reflection? Only a sad set of circumstances would deny a person the ability to recall what he looked like.
Similarly, meditating on God's word is something we should be very serious about. This isn't a joke, not a pastime, but rather it demands the focus of all our attention.
Some call the time they spend reading and reflecting on God's word a devotional, aptly phrased because we ought to devote ourselves completely to the task whenever we undertake it. Be not worried, nor condemned.
Jesus only needs a sideways glance from us!
'But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action.'
- James chapter 1, verse 25 (The Message)
Don't beat yourself up about your short attention span and begrudge reading the word. Just like physical conditioning takes time and consistency, so too does the development of spiritual stamina. The key is sticking with it as Eugene Peterson puts it in the Message translation. All Jesus needs from us is a sideways glance—a glimpse out of the corner of the eye.
'That person will find delight and affirmation in the action', says James and I find this encouraging—Jesus meets us right where we seek him.
However, we must be doers of the word, not merely listeners. For if we hear and understand but fail to act on the revelation, well this is very much like walking downstairs to the kitchen and forgetting why. It would be like gazing at your own reflection and wondering who is staring back at you.
A message for eternity
There is much to be gained by meditating on God's word and understanding the relevance of the message of the gospel in our lives. I pray today you will take God at his word. Open the Bible. Read a few verses and see if I'm wrong. Try Romans chapter 6, verse 23 for starters.
'But now that you've found you don't have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way! Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God's gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master.'
- Romans chapter 6, verses 22–23 (The Message)
Eternity begins now for anybody who would usher it in. With faith in Jesus Christ the impossible is made distinctly possible: eternal life, freedom from sin and death. We can't achieve it on our own, but through Jesus we obtain this great promise.
David Luschwitz is an Australian Teacher and Evangelist currently residing in the South of Spain where he has spent the past six months writing two books and enjoying feasting on the massive strawberries for which the region is renowned.
To read more of David's writing and to hear his story head to www.davidluschwitz.com
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David's previous articles can be found at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/david-luschwitz.html