"Slow"

You hear he’s slow as Christmas,

Or molasses flowing down,

Slow as an old woman,

On her way to get to town.

They’re slow as old pond water,

As any turtle cross the road,

Slow as someone paying debt,

Or a break-down being towed.

To the slow hand Dad would holler,

Come up, sleepy, come on up,

Nothing made him half as mad,

Unless the slow would interrupt,

When he tried to speed ‘em up,

And move when he said move,

And didn’t care if they felt rushed,

Or their emotions soothe.

My friend from California,

When he came to the Lone Star state,

Thought everyone was slow upstairs,

When folks talked he had to wait,

Until they got their point across,

Which often took awhile,

‘Cause folks down here don’t talk too fast,

The slowness made him smile.

And now that I’ve got older,

Not as speedy as I was,

My pace is more deliberate,

And maybe it’s because,

Everything I got that moves,

Has hit some real delay,

Muscles, joints and bones that talk,

They rein me in and say,

You used to be much faster,

But now a better pace,

Is good old slow and steady,

A reality to face.

And one thing more is certain,

About the words I say,

Slow to speak is better,

I’ve learned it the hard way.

And I will rarely have regret,

About what I do not say,

My opinion is not needed,

And to me that is okay.

Slow to anger, slow to speak,

That’s how the Good Book reads,

And I believe it’s good advice,

That everybody needs.

Moving slow is laziness,

When you should be quick,

But there are quite a lot of things,

Where slow is the best pick. 

Knowing that is wisdom,

And wisdom’s yours today,

Whenever that old Good Book speaks,

And we hear what it has to say.

“…But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger…” (James 1:19, NAS)

What if we all followed this advice? The world would be a lot nicer place to live. Christians find it challenging to live this way, even when addressing each other. But there is great peace in following this counsel. You are relieved from the burden of straightening everybody out, and letting them know how wrong they are. You realize you don’t have to respond to every opinion or post, and that you can be led by the Spirit with your words. You have no axe to grind, no point to make, and no argument to win. The sound of silence sometimes speaks louder than anything we can say.

Lord help us to be quick to listen and slow to speak, in Jesus’ name.

Art by Teal Blake, used by permission. Thanks, Teal, and God bless you.