John’s phone rang.  It was the call that all parents hope they will never receive. His teenage daughter, who had recently received her driver’s license, was involved in an accident. Would John come?

A short time later John found himself sitting on the curb with his daughter waiting for the police to come and write up a report on the accident, which, fortunately, had wrecked the car but caused no physical harm.  All at once, though, John began to seethe inside with anger.  Why had she not been more careful? Did she not realize how serious this could have been?  The more he thought about it, the more angry he became with his daughter.

Then something caught his attention.  It was a piece of paper floating in the gutter.  As he looked more closely, he saw it was the fill-in-the-blanks outline from Sunday’s sermon at his church. The title of the message was “Defusing Your Anger.”  Picking it up, he had to smile as he thought to himself how creative God is in getting our attention.

Yes, He speaks to us in many resourceful ways. Yes, sometimes He speaks as we read the Bible, His Word. Sometimes He brings to mind a scripture verse we memorized years ago as a child.  Sometimes God speaks through a friend who gives us Biblical advice. Other times God speaks in our hearts with a quiet but insistent voice.  If He needs to, He can even float the message to us in the gutter.

The question is, “Are you listening?” God once said to His people, “I called but you did not answer, I spoke but you did not listen. You did evil in my sight and chose what displeases me” (Isaiah 65:12). How sad! James says, “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry” (James 1:19). And then he adds, “Do not merely listen to the word…. Do what it says” (verse 22). Good advice, James!