Babies, Bath Water and Those Drains

"Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry..." ... James 1:19

****

It's funny-sad. You mention certain well-known people, ones who have their own talk shows, tv ministries, radio programs or those who write controversial books or newspaper columns and so often certain people bristle and exclaim, "Oh, I never listen to that person! He/she believes _________ and I totally disagree, so I stopped listening to him/her years ago."

And when people say words like that to me or I read it online? Immediately a picture flashes through my mind: I see babies spinning down bathtub drains. You know, because of that old saying, "Don't throw out the baby with the bath water."

I'm sensitive to that attitude because I used to be the same way, always holding my ten-foot pole up to anyone with whom I disagreed. 

Basically, fear was involved. Fear that untruths would tackle me and make me believe in them, even against my will. That gullibility would cause me to devour any little tasty, foreign morsel--and doom me forever.

Good grief.

And well, there are still things, teachings, I avoid even to this day, namely, anything I perceive as being contrary to the Bible. I'm not talking about opening myself up to that which is, hands down, evil or anti-God.

No. But what I am saying? These past years I've loosened up. I've begun listening to people who I don't agree with 100%, people from far different backgrounds and thought--and I have grown. I've discovered that every person has something to say, teach, even if it's as basic as, "Don't do what I have done. Don't let this happen to you."

But usually, the lessons are much more varied and I come away glad that I'm no longer filtering what I hear by a sort of fear factor. I'm not turning the tv channel just because a friend told me that she can't stand that person. No longer avoiding that tv ministry or that newspaper column just because a group of people or a blogger told me that the celebrity said or did _________ (fill in the blank).

No, because again, every person has something to teach me.  

Will I listen long enough to actually come to care about that person or group and then pray for them out of compassion? Perfect love casts out all fear and the less I fear the differences in others, the more I am growing as a person because of the lessons each of us are placed here upon Earth to teach.



******