How many know there’s a big difference between hearing and listening? This difference is one that I’m constantly experiencing with the kids ... The other night, I was ‘passionately parenting’, trying to get the kids to help get the table set for dinner. As I repeated the request at least a half dozen times, I finally elevated my voice to that level that wakes the dog and shakes the windows ... apparently the only level my kids can hear ... and said ‘DOES ANYONE HEAR ME?!?!’. Although they did stop the wrestling, I was met with blank stares and muffled responses. Pressing, I said 'Emma, what did I say?!' ... With a question in her voice she responded, 'Quit wrestling?'... frustrated, I directed my glare to number two and asked 'Sam, what did I say?!' ... 'Get ready for bed?' was his guess ... Looking to Isaac, I asked again 'Isaac, what did I say?' ... 'Clean the table off.', he flatly answered. Exasperated, I asked 'If you can hear me, why don’t you listen?', to which he gave a classic answer, 'I didn’t know you were talking to me.'
I’ve come to the conclusion that while hearing is a gift from God, listening is a choice.
I would like to think I’m a good listener, but I’m just not. I want to be, but I’m such a task-oriented person that my mind is usually running a mile a minute thinking beyond the conversation in which I’m currently engaged. Can anyone relate to that? I’ve started to wonder if this applies to my walk with God ... I want nothing more then to hear from God, but I no longer think it’s a matter of Him not speaking, or me not hearing ... I’m becoming more aware that it is me not listening ... to actively pay attention with the intention to obey.
The Bible has much to say about hearing AND listening ... In Luke 8:8, Jesus ends a parable teaching with the words 'He who has ears to hear, let him hear.' ... The Message reads, ‘Are you listening to this? Really listening?’ ... essentially, he who has the ability to hear, let him LISTEN ... (I wonder if Jesus' voice ever reached the level that shook windows!?!) What’s interesting about this verse is that just this past week in services, the teaching was on Luke 8:4-7, but God lead me to verse 8 just today, at which time I realized it was the end to the verses from Sunday's teaching ... While the title of the sermon was ‘Greater Hearing’, the focus was on the concept of understanding what comes naturally is not necessarily what God wants for us ... sometimes it takes work to follow the supernatural promptings from God. The parable in versus 4-7 is the one about the different grounds that a farmer can sow seeds ... Pastor pointed out that weeds are natural to the ground and grow without any effort ... but seeds are not natural. To grow as they are intended, they must be carefully planted and nurtured ... As is the same with Kingdom seeds ... While God tries to plant His seeds in our life ... the kinds that will prosper us and bear fruit ... there are so many things of this world that can actually act as weeds that choke out the real fruit that God intends ... some of which are quite natural to our lives (jobs, family, church, kids, goals, desires, wants). Sometimes we have to pull these things away from the seeds that God plants, so that what He plants can grow strong, without competition for everything it needs to be fruitful.
The question is, how do you pull those weeds of the world ... the ones that entangle and confuse responsibilities with God’s calling on our heart ... or our wants with our needs ... our dreams with God-given longings ... Our busy schedules with our time meant for the Lord.
Another teaching I recently heard was on the voice of a shepherd and how in Biblical times, the shepherds did not ‘herd’ their sheep, but LEAD them from place to place. No horses or dogs, the sheep were so in tune to their shepherds voice that he just called after them and they followed ... How fitting that God would use this example for His church ... Not that we would be herded or forced to follow, but that we would learn to hear His voice and yearn to be with Him, knowing He was the source of our safety and provision. Yet ANOTHER, recent teaching reminded me that when a sheep does wander in the other direction, the further it gets away from his shepherd’s voice, the harder it is to hear and to know which way to go ... eventually they become lost but not because the shepherd quit calling, but because they stopped listening and eventually could no longer hear ... Sometimes it’s good to just head in the direction of the voice, just to make sure we can still hear ... listening is a choice.
My heart is no longer to just to hear God, but to LISTEN to Him ... to move out in that Word to where I know He wants me to be ... To cultivate what God is planting, not allowing it to be choked out with fear or pride, confusion or frustration ... but sometimes those weeds are pretty complicated buggers ... It’s not so easy to trade what is natural for something that is not, and sometimes it’s a lot of work to obey each time you receive a command ... like calling a friend or taking dinner to a neighbor ... sending money to someone or forgiving a debt ... forgiving a friend, or asking to be forgiven ... It can be a little ouchy or maybe even seem a little ‘cuckoo’, but the more that we move towards His voice, the more that we will hear ... the more the ground is worked, the easier it is to farm.
At the end of September, my dear friend Sheri and I booked a trip to Israel ... we leave in three weeks (Nov 5) and will be gone for 12 days (thru Nov 17). PLEASE BE PRAYING! I don’t know when God first whispered the thought to me, but soon after thinking about it, I opened an email that said ‘Have you ever wanted to go to Israel’? ... I picked up the phone and called Sheri and said “I think God wants me to go to Israel and I want you to go with me.” She said, ‘I’m in!’, but then we both agreed we should probably pray about it :) We dedicated it to prayer throughout the summer in which I have never met more people who had ‘just got back from Israel’! I even had a customer call back that turned into a testimony of her recent trip to Israel and ended with her praying for my decision and provision to go! Even with all of the coincidences that God kept bringing to our path, we still questioned if we were really hearing Him ... After all, it’s crazy, right?!? When it came time to decide, we agreed that all along we HAD been hearing from Him, but now it was up to us if we were going to listen, or not. We feel that whether we chose to go or to stay we will be okay; but if we don't go, we both felt like we are going to miss out on something. I can’t explain it ... I’ve had several people ask ‘why now’ and all I can answer is ‘I don’t know’ ... but the closer we get, the more confident I am that it’s what He is saying and I just have to move out in that.
Once again, my exchange with my kids caused me to pause and ask God ‘what are you wanting me to see here’ ... I don’t want to be so distracted with my wrestling with life that I’m not able to hear Him at all ... when I do hear His voice, I don’t want to miss what He has for me to do ... It takes discipline to step out whenever I hear Him speaking, but I believe that there is something big here with nurturing the Kingdom seeds that He is scattering into my field ... trusting that it’s a move towards my Shepherds voice and that the harvest is sure to come ... I just know that some day I’m going to stand in front of Him and I don’t want my response to be ‘but I didn’t know you were talking to me’. I continue to listen for my Shepherds voice because I am desperately dependent on Him and I want to be so in tune to His voice, that I don’t miss one step on this path ... following wherever He leads ...
... even if it’s on a cuckoo bus to Israel ...
MORE LORD, MORE!
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This coincides with something I "heard" from the Lord this week. We've been talking about making sure that we are drinking deeply from God's river of grace and not just sipping, and how that involves really making Him a priority and spending time with Him each day. But with our busy, crazy lives what do we cut out? We can't cut out our kids, we can't cut out the laundry (although that's definitely my first choice) we can't cut out cooking, we can't cut out serving others, we can't cut out . . . fill-in the blank. Then I heard from the Lord. I guess we just keeping trying to "listen" the best we can - doing what He calls us to for that day. Maybe it's really a day to day thing. Today He calls us to drop everything and hold the baby, read to the toddler and just laugh with our teenagers. But tomorrow He may call us to leave them all home for the afternoon as we go and pray for the family that's been just given the diagnosis of cancer in their child. Maybe we are trying to listen one day and make it the call on our life for the week, the month, the year or even forever, when really it's just for the day. Maybe when we start listening EVERY Day we will see that every day He may call us to some thing different, but He will always call us to the same someone.
ReplyDeleteHuh? I guess I'll have to ask Him that tomorrow, when I make time for Him a priority.
Have a safe trip. I imagine that you are excited and a little nervous at the same time. I hope that you have a great time.
ReplyDeleteI've often wondered if the kids need hearing aids and totally relate to your kitchen anecdote. Maybe we all need a little aid for our hearing.