Time to listen?
What can you hear today? The whistle of the kettle boiling, the roar of the tumble dryer or the TV muttering in the background?
What are you tuning into? The rustle as you turn the page in your book? The music emanating from your Alexa? What about the gentle whisper of God?
The art of good listening is exceedingly difficult, especially when we live in a world that is constantly busy, constantly noisy, and constantly full of distractions. Henri Nouwen wisely said: “Listening is the highest form of hospitality…hospitality is not to change people but to offer them space where change can take place.”
Who has truly listened to you this week? Really listened? Taking their attention from their smartphone to fix their eyes on you, not interrupting, not questioning? Just listening.
When was the last time you truly listened to someone else? Without an agenda, without wanting anything from them or to share something of your own life when it seemed relevant?
I never fail to be blown away by God’s incredible gift of listening, the way He so patiently listens to my worries, frustrations and dreams, without interrupting, without losing focus. And yet, it is often in that place of listening that change can take place.
When the prophet Elijah was feeling afraid for his life and overwhelmed with sorrow, exclaiming “Take my life, I am no better than my ancestors” (1 Kings 19:4). God doesn’t try to change Him, He doesn’t question him at this point or challenge him. He simply listens and gives Elijah what he needs – food and drink. God later shows Him that He wasn’t in the wind, the fire, or the earthquake but in the gentle whisper.
What is God whispering to you today?
When we journey through tough times, it can be so easy to ignore the voice of God, so easy to listen to the competing voices around us. God can seem further and further away yet it is in those times that we need to seek His face even more!
Corrie Ten Boom wisely said that when going through a dark tunnel, it is not the time to disembark the train but to lean back and trust the driver. We need to rediscover the mystery of His proximity, that in those difficult moments the Father is incredibly close, listening attentively.
Ever had those times when people just haven’t listened to you? They maybe started to, then got distracted or decided to start talking about their own experience of your problem, rather than simply listening to you? God never does that! He promises ‘Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I WILL listen to you’ (Jeremiah 29:12).
What might God be saying to you today? He longs for you to draw so close that you can feel his breath, to see the glimmer in His eyes as He looks at you lovingly, patiently, attentively.
