Look, listen and bite your tongue

I went grouper fishing with a new friend the other day up around the Florida panhandle. This fellow told me that the guy that was going with us was the best fisherman that he had ever met and went on and on about him and what a great fisherman that he was. When I got in the truck with them the great fisherman asked me if I liked to fish and I told him yes, but that grouper fishing was not my favorite type of fishing and that I preferred trolling. He began calling me “the first timer” from that point on. Hmmm I thought to myself, “I did not say I was a first timer, I just said bottom fishing for grouper was not my favorite type of fishing; oh well”. We had about an hour’s drive and I heard much about this fellow’s fishing prowess (from him). He was not shy about his accomplishments and he was freely offering fishing tips to me, the “first timer”. I sat in the back seat and listened attentively and did not say much of anything.

After catching our live bait, we went to the first fishing location. I dropped my bait down and immediately “hooked up” on a very large grouper. I battled him up and sure enough he was a keeper. I threw him on the ice and re-baited my hook and dropped down again. Almost as soon as it hit bottom I felt a good bite and soon was reeling in another monster gag grouper. “What do you know, another keeper”, I exclaimed as I dropped him on the ice. I dropped down again and what do you know I immediately hooked up with another, and then another, and suddenly I had four large gag groupers in the boat. My new friend and the other guy had yet to catch their first keeper fish. I looked at the guy who had been calling me a first timer and sheepishly explained that it was just “beginners luck”. He smiled a sickly looking smile and nodded.

I heard them grumbling to each other that the guy fishing in the back of the boat always had the advantage. I had been fishing in the back of the boat and immediately moved to the front of the boat and oddly it did not make any difference, I hooked up again and again and actually caught the big fish of the day on my second drop from up there. This old Islamorada “first timer” out-fished these boys in their own boat, with their own fishing gear, on their own turf that day, and best of all I let my fishing do my talking and never once ran my mouth.

This reminded me of a similar event that occurred some years ago. I made a new acquaintance and he asked my wife and me to go water skiing with him and his wife. We agreed and went the following weekend. This guy never once asked if we could ski and instead talked incessantly about what a great skier he was, ad nauseam. He decided to ski first whereby he could demonstrate first hand just how it was supposed to be done. It quickly became apparent that he was just an average skier at best. His best trick was to ski along on two skis and then drop one ski and wobble along for forty yards or so trying to maintain his balance as he managed to get his back foot into the slalom ski. Finally he got his back foot in, at which point he trailed along directly behind the boat hunched over trying to keep his balance with a silly smirk on his face waving to us and saluting to us like he was on the Cypress Gardens ski team.

Finally he tired and with a final salute to us dropped the ski rope and the ski show was over. We circled around and picked him up and when he got in the boat, I told him that was great and he looked at me with a patronizing look as if to say, “Of course”. It was my turn to ski, so he had to give me my unsolicited final instructions for about thirty minutes. He still had not asked if I could ski and I just listened as he explained the finer points of skiing and he offered up pointer after pointer. After my final instructions I nodded to him and jumped into the water.

He started to throw both skis into the water and I told him that I would like to try it on just one. He looked at me as if I had lost my mind and reluctantly put the other ski back in the boat. The boat pulled me out of the water and as soon as I emerged and reached top speed, I raced across to the other side and leaned over nearly horizontal to the water and as I made my turn, I generated a twenty foot high thick spray of water and then I shot back across the wake and setup for my next turn where I repeated it over and over again as we sped down the lake. Unbeknownst to him I was an expert skier and could actually lean over within inches of the water as I made my turns, emitting a huge wall of water and actually drag my elbow across the water as I made my turns. He was mighty quiet when I got back in the boat I tell you.

I’m sure you have been in similar situations. Unbridled arrogance will only yield a fall, better to be humble and remain standing. I have observed that the Lord gave us two eyes, two ears, and just one mouth. That is four to one and I believe the significance is that we should look and listen four times as much as we talk.

As I study my Bible and look to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I am in awe of Him. His majestic splendor, power, intelligence and glory are unequaled, but look at His example to us. He was humble in every manner being born in a manger, working with His hands as a carpenter, spending time with ordinary people including even talking to women in public, (something unheard of in that day). He would dine with sinners, heal the sick including lepers, and took time to love the children at every opportunity.

He rightfully could have come as the all powerful king of the world that He is and been afforded with the red carpet treatment including a throne made of gold and precious stones from which to rule. He could have summoned a million angels to wait on Him hand and foot as He met with world leaders and the rulers and top dogs of the day. He could have bragged incessantly about all that He has and has accomplished and He actually had something for which to brag. But Jesus Christ is not arrogant and He remained humble as an example to us. In speaking of being humble, Golda Meir the former Prime Minister of Israel once offered some advice that has stuck with me for all of these years, “Be humble, you really are not that great”. It is far better for us to follow the example of Jesus and let our actions do our talking for us

Phil. 2:5
Your attitude should be the same that Jesus Christ had. Though he was God, He did not demand and cling to His rights as God. He made Himself nothing; He took the humble
position of a slave and appeared in human form. And in human form He obediently
humbled Himself even further by dying a criminal’s death on a cross. Because of this
God raised Him up to the heights of heaven and gave Him a name that is above every
other name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, in heaven, and on earth
and under the earth, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory
of God the Father.