February 12, 2010
Instant Messaging
I forwarded an email with my added comments to a co-worker and only after hitting send did I realize I’d actually hit reply rather than forward. No harm, no foul…this time, but I can see how easily you can get yourself in a predicament when you’re not attentive to your messaging. Much of our communication today is done electronically and for many it is their way of speaking to one another. Although James is referring to hearing and doing the Word, I think his instruction also has application to my emailing. “…let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger…” And slow to hit send! (James 1:19 ESV)
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----We have to be careful with James’ instruction. It is good instruction, but it must not be mistaken for what it is not. Life is a sea of information much more vast than any one of us will ever completely comprehend. Even the events and circumstances that touch our individual lives involve more details than we can know. So the fact is, each of us only acquire a very small sampling of everything there is to know about life. When information is made available it might actually be an addition to that sample - something new we don’t yet know. Since the reality of things exists in what they are, not what we perceive them to be, hearing is critical to further aligning our own perceptions with reality because it is critical to adding to what we know. But not all information is true. therefore new information must be verified. James’ instruction is not a call to gullibility. Hearing requires work, and it is this work that calls us to be slow to speak.
-----But once we have verified the truth about something we have heard, we still can not speak until we have understood its fit into our perspective. Unless we are not concerned about going insane, our perspective must match reality as closely as possible. So our understanding must fit into what life really is. And that is tricky, because no one of us knows more than a small sampling of reality. To be completely honest, we must admit that reality is to ourselves an unfinished jigsaw puzzle. Room in our thinking is needed for the probability that how we perceive reality may actually be changed by what we find to be true in new information. This room is part of humility. Having that caveat in place, and having developed new information into at least a basic understanding, we are ready to speak.
-----We don’t speak for our good alone. We speak to edify others, paying mind to their interests as well as ours. It is in this attention to the interests of others that speaking gets slowed even more. Another person’s interests rise out his own perceptions. Whether those perceptions are real or distorted, the resulting interests are intimately tied into the other person‘s character and personality. So care and consideration for his interests must include care and consideration for his personality and character. The best one can know of them is also simply from perception; it is the other person who understands them somewhat better. Therefore, our message to another must at least respect what it does not fully understand about that other, especially if we are faced with helping him to correct some distortion in his perception; it must be done gently.
-----And doesn’t another being wrong about something effecting us make us angry? Anger is a natural emotion. But that does not make it an appropriate response. Some think it is better to remain silent when angry. Silence is demanded by the lack of understanding, not the presence of emotion. If we understand, we must speak, because we must edify. It is respect and honor for the other person that filters the angry emotion from the message, carefully replacing it with truth and intimate warmth.
-----James’ instruction is not to just hear everything, talk little, and don’t get mad. It is about dealing carefully and honestly with others.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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