“Are you listening? Did you hear what I just said?” These words pop through into the cloud of concentration I am in. The trouble is I was concentrating on the wrong thing! It seems, even at home, I am surrounded by tons of distractions: background “noise” of busy activity in the kitchen, music on the wireless speaker interrupted by annoying advertisements, people talking on the TV, or “new message” flashing at the top right of the desktop. There are piles of things around the room that need attention, as well as plenty of post it notes stuck here and there reminding me of those very things, lest I get distracted and forget! “Yes. Uh huh. Yup. Got it. Listening.”

I think I’m listening to my wife K.D. as she speaks from the kitchen, but it sort of slips away. After all, I’m multi-tasking! (Which properly defined is doing a lot of things at the same time, but none of them necessarily well). So there I am with one eye focused on the latest distraction of an important news flash on the TV, catching it all, and what seems in the moment like a shot out of left field come her words, “Are you listening? Did you hear what I was saying?”

There are three options available to me in that moment of truth:

  • I could go for the fake: “Yes, dear I’m listening.” Whereupon she could respond with, “Then what did I just say?!” (Probably not a good option).
  • I could go for the save: “I was listening. I just missed the last part.” (Fine if it’s true, BUT if I really missed the first part as well, the truth will find me out!).
  • I could go for the confession: “I thought I was listening but honestly, no I didn’t hear what you said. I’m sorry. I missed what you were saying.” (Better).

Unfortunately the same dynamic is true for the Lord with us. God has spoken, is speaking and will speak to his people/Church, but are we listening? We have the Word of God” as we call it; the Holy Scriptures. We have “the still, small voice” of the Spirit as we are prompted. We even have those the Lord has sent in person to prophecy, proclaim, preach, teach and counsel. Yet, with all that speaking, are we actually listening?

In one of his insightful spiritual works Henri Nouwen writes, “From all that I said about our worried, overfilled lives, it is clear that we are usually surrounded by so much outer noise that it is hard to truly hear God when he is speaking to us. We often become deaf, unable to know when God calls us and unable to understand in which direction he has called us. Thus our lives become absurd. In the word absurd we find the Latin word surdus, which means “deaf.” A spiritual life requires discipline because we need to listen to God, who constantly speaks but whom we seldom hear. When, however, we learn to listen, our lives become obedient lives. The word obedient comes from the Latin word audire, which means ‘listening.’ A spiritual discipline is necessary in order to move slowly from an absurd to an obedient life, from a life filled with noisy worries to a life in which there is some free inner space where we can listen to our God and follow his guidance. [Making All Things New: An Invitation to the Spiritual Life. San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1981].

At the end of his discourses, Jesus frequently says, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” And then, at the end of the Bible, in book of Revelation the Lord repeats a phrase over and over in chapters 2-3, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.”

God wants us to listen up! Pay attention. Be all ears to what he is saying. We must periodically and intentionally clear from the distractions around us so we can focus our eyes, ears and hearts on him. We need to read God’s word and pray to him with out multi-tasking. We need to seek solitude and silence for meditation or contemplation, sanctuaries of peace-filled space with the Lord (indoors or out), where we meet with him if for no other reason but to Be with him and hear his voice. And yes, it will take discipline to do that!

“I’m listening, Lord.” I easily find myself pressing into the day thinking I’m listening, but in actuality I am concentrating more on the distractions of the “many and much.” How about you? Oh we’re good at multi-tasking aren’t we! Well, whatever cloud of concentration you find yourself currently in, let me encourage you to stop and hear. What is God saying to you? What has he already said to you? Are you listening?

—RWO/MAST