Two ears

            Since I recently broached the topic of speaking it seems natural to proceed with the concept of listening. James 1:19,20 “My dear brothers and sisters take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.”  As one who is mildly hard of hearing there are certain people whose voices are so quiet; I must face them and concentrate on their voice to hear them. Honestly, that should be how I listen to anyone speaking to me. Giving our full attention to someone demonstrates love and care. I work in an environment that requires a certain amount of multi-tasking; I am accustomed to distracted listening, but I admit I don’t do it well.

            I’m particularly fond of the story in 1 Kings 19:11-13 when Elijah encounters God. “The Lord said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, the Lord is about to pass by.’ Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountain apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, ‘What are you doing here Elijah?’ If we are quiet and listening well, there is a good chance that God is asking us that same question. Everyone knows misery loves company, what if the next time we started to share our misery (a.k.a. gossip) we heard the Lord whisper, “What are you doing here?” We usually want someone else to agree with us that a situation or another person is miserable or lacking in some way, it is a form of validation but at what cost? Have we thrown someone else “under the bus” or hurt their reputation? How would we respond to God asking us, “What are you doing here?”  We can’t lie to God! He knows what we are doing; we are attempting to build ourselves up by stepping on someone else.

            Proverbs 18:13 “To answer before listening – that is folly and shame.” Yet how often do we do this? We begin nodding or shaking our heads while the speaker is in mid-sentence. Listening is as much of an art as speaking. We all know at least one good listener; they give eye contact, they don’t interrupt, they remain quiet to contemplate what has been said and above all they make us feel valued. Think of your favorite person to spend time with; odds are he/she is a great listener. We all want to be heard and validated. The active listener learns far more than a speaker ever will. If we listen carefully, we can hear God guiding us throughout life. The trick is to listen and obey. That little voice in our heads usually has wisdom; we must choose to listen to it over the other noises of low self-confidence, misery-sharing and one up-man-ship that the world shouts at us. As I mentioned in my last post; we have two ears and one mouth, perhaps to listen twice as much as we speak.

            One caveat about being a good listener is that we also have a say so in what we listen to. We don’t have to attend every conversation with great interest. We make the choice to participate or not. If the conversation is taking a negative or gossipy turn, we can shut it down or walk away or even better defend the victim of the gossip. I am reminded of the children’s song:

O be careful little eyes what you see
O be careful little eyes what you see
For the Father up above
is looking down in love
So, be careful little eyes what you see
O be careful little ears what you hear
O be careful little ears what you hear
For the Father up above
is looking down in love
So, be careful little ears what you hear
O be careful little tongue what you say
O be careful little tongue what you say
For the Father up above
is looking down in love
So, be careful little tongue what you say.

            Wisdom for the ages.