In One Ear

I read an article once about a professional baseball player who couldn’t seem to make the necessary adjustments needed in his approach to hitting. The player contended that his hitting was fine, but many of his current and former coaches disagreed. They pointed to the fact that his batting average had continued to decline and that he was striking out at an alarming rate.

In one game, the player might have 3 hits, but in the next 4 games, he wouldn’t get a hit, striking out 9 times. It’s not that the player didn’t have good coaching — one of his previous coaches was a former batting champion. The problem was that he wasn’t doing what the coaches were asking. James 1:22-24 says:

     “But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. Because if anyone is a hearer of the word
     and not a doer, he is like someone looking at his own face in a mirror. For he looks at himself, goes away, and
     immediately forgets what kind of person he was.”

A man who listens but does not put what he has heard into action immediately forgets what kind of man he is. It is not enough to simply hear about something, know about it or even talk about it; you must live it.