My son Steven's Little League baseball coach has to be the most patient man alive.

"Okay, team," he yells to the Tigers as they stand at their positions. "How many outs?"

"One!" a couple of them reply.

"Where's the runner?"

"On first," one or two others offer.

"Okay, if it's a ground ball, throw it to second," the coach reminds the 8- and 9-year-olds.

So, the batter grounds the ball to the third baseman, who seems paralyzed with the idea of knowing what to do. By the time he decides, it's too late. Everybody's safe.

Once again, the players were hearers but not doers. Time after time, the coach reminds his players what to do. Time after time, they do something else.

There's a bit of this tendency in all of us. God has told us what He expects of us, yet we so often fail to do it. For instance, in James 1:13-16, we are told that temptation can lead to sin and its consequences. Yet how many times do we ignore that warning?

James tells us that if we are doers, we will "be blessed" in what we do (1:25). That's a pretty good reason to be a doer of the Word and not merely a hearer.  — Dave Branon