Ignoring The Alarm

My house has a smoke detector that goes off every single time I cook. Every time. I am not even burning anything. I’m just making eggs and the thing starts screaming like the house is engulfed in flames. After a while, you know what I did? I just started ignoring it. I fan it with a towel and keep cooking.

Here’s the problem with that. If an actual fire ever starts in my kitchen, I have trained myself not to listen to the alarm.

That is what happens when we live in a constant state of reaction. When we are quick to speak, quick to anger, quick to fire off that text, quick to post that comment, quick to assume the worst about somebody’s motives without bothering to ask, we turn ourselves into smoke detectors that go off at everything. And after a while, nobody takes us seriously. Our spouse stops listening. Our kids tune us out. Our coworkers just nod and walk away. Worse than that, we stop being able to tell the difference between something that genuinely matters and something that’s just eggs.

James says in chapter 1, verse 19, “Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.” And then he gives the reason in verse 20: the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. It doesn’t fix the marriage. It doesn’t change the coworker. It doesn’t undo the injustice. Most of the time it just burns the bridge you’re going to need tomorrow.

Anyone can explode. It takes something quieter, something steadier, to stay calm when the room is on fire. James calls it being slow to anger. I’d call it not training yourself to ignore the alarm.