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Listen to the warmThursday, December 14, 2000
Matthew 11:15 "Children are to be seen and not heard." Maybe whoever first said that also believed that if they weren't heard, they were listening. I guess that person forgot what it was like to be a child. I don't think I did much listening back there, out of sight (and mind). Parents show their children they are valuable by paying attention to them, by spending time with them, by listening to them. They can say anything but their actions are louder. They can buy expensive presents, but time and attention are priceless. Of course, when parents themselves haven't been listened to, they don't have many clues about listening to their kids. So if we don't know much about listening to each other, why are we surprised that we can't listen to God? Far too often my prayers are shopping lists, complaint litanies, thank-you notes, all of the above. I talk and talk and talk. There's just so much to say. And being still, listening, is unfamiliar, uncomfortable, very difficult. It takes longer than I expect for my mind to quiet down, and I don't often wait. In the verses that precede this statement, Jesus makes some strange, confusing, bold assertions about what God is doing. Everyone who hears him receives the words through their own particular set of preconceptions. Jesus challenges them, but each of them (us) - I - will either choose to listen or to mentally interrupt, interpret and dismiss. Satan will rip me off if he can. He will close my ears, he will fill me with his own words, or most simply of all he will just encourage me to speak, to think, to cast my own opinions, to do anything besides listen. Because learning, growing, becoming whole, are not possible without listening, listening to each other, to the deeper place within myself, most of all to God. Lord, open my eyes that I can see. Open my ears that I can hear. Let the senses you gave me guide me into your refining fire. |
An interesting statistic, that in school we spend the most time learning to write, some time learning to speak, and nearly no time learning to listen. Then as grownups we discover that we spend the most time listening, some time speaking, and almost no time writing.