Two Ears, One Mouth

A text message I received recently said, “We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak”.

These past few weeks, what God has been dealing with me is about listening. I see posts about it on Facebook and WordPress, spotted it on a book title on a bookstore… and many other places and circumstances where I find myself remembering that word, “Listen”.

It’s not just… no, it’s God, dealing some things with me. And I know that at times, I have some serious listening issues.

Or maybe I talk too much.

James 1:19 says, Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;

As I read these words, this is the first thing that I feel: GUILT.

I can’t change myself, only God can. I want to practice being a good and a sincere listener. As a leader, I have to, since leadership is more of  a listening act, than of talking. I think the first step into achieving this is to stop talking too much. How would my ears work to its full efforts, if my mouth is working? After all, the Word of God says, “When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent.” (Proverbs 10:19)

Listening is a selfless act. When we talk, our motives might be stained by our own selfish human desires–to impress those who are listening, to love it when people respond with such an enthusiasm, to receive compliments about how good we are. It could just easily go wrong when we are talking.

But when we listen, no matter how we feel towards the speaker, when we give him our ears selflessly, and even give him our time to listen, I think that is enough to show them our love. After all, love is not a feeling, it is a choice, it is a decision.

What Society Didn’t Tell

“Society kills the teenager”.

I do not know who said those words, but young people seem to understand it very clearly. And maybe, just maybe, those words are true. That society is a killer, because I was once a victim.

Society quotes that “high school is the best part of a person’s life”. Society says that in high school, you will experience countless wonderful things. Society instructs me to treasure every moment of those four years, by doing everything I like to do, making everything of my youth.

Yes, that is what people say—but now that I’m older, I realized what society didn’t say: In high school, you’re going to be a stranger. You have to wear a mask in which you are called in a different name, because under your real name, you will be rejected.

I am sure everyone experienced it. That invisible force that pushes you to do what you shouldn’t be doing in order to fit in to a group. You’re not really that kind of person, but you began wanting to be one just because all of them are. You know that feeling? I felt those, too. You’re slowly and unconsciously turning into a stranger.

I was a victim. I became a different person. I was a product of the society. I was stranger in my own body. I was so not myself.

But here’s the thing: I was lost, but now I’m found.

I became my true self when I knew Who is my Creator. He told me who I am.

Let me put it this way. When you buy a new appliance, how do you know its name and what is its purpose? For example, a rice cooker. How did you know it’s called a “rice cooker” and how it’s used? Did you ask it? No, only the inventor will be able to tell you what is it. And you will know how to use it by reading the manual. It’s the same for us people, we don’t know who we are. And we, too, have a manual. And with that manual made by the Inventor, I knew my purpose. It showed me the way how to be the real me.

That manual is the Bible. And God is the Inventor.

In high school, society killed my true personality. But during high school too, I was born into a new identity. I am a stranger-no-more.