Listening is central to who God is.
Listening is central to who we are.
When the Psalmist contrasts the true God with all the false gods of the world, one of the things he does is point to the fact that our God has a mouth that speaks and ears that hear (Ps. 115). That is, what sets our God apart from all alternatives is that he provides ongoing connection and instruction with his mouth and that he engages in compassionate listening with his ears. It’s vital that we embrace a spirituality in which this is embedded in how we image God–he speaks and listens, still.
And, when Scripture pictures us, it pictures us primarily as those who listen to God. “Listening,” Adam McHugh writes in The Listening Life, “is the central act of the people of God.” “Spiritual people,” Dallas Willard writes in Hearing God, “are those who draw their life from a conversational relationship with God.” “Listen to him!” is one of God’s central commands when it comes to our relationship with his son Jesus (Matt. 17:15). Henri Nouwen writes that “The great movement of the spiritual life is from a deaf, non hearing life, to a life of listening (Discernment).”
Listening is one of those practices that enables us to experience life as rooted and grounded in love (Eph. 3:17). The more we experience hearing this God who loves us, engaged in a conversational relationship with him, the more deeply we find ourselves rooted, the more firmly we find ourselves grounded. Samuel’s prayer, “Speak Lord for your servant is listening,” is still one of the most important prayers we can pray daily (hourly!) (1 Sam. 3:10)
There are many ways, thankfully, to listen to our loving God.
- Scripture: “Not only is the Bible the source of our knowledge of God, but it is also important because it is the very Word of God. For centuries, Christians have made the remarkable claim that God actually speaks to us through a book. Therefore, whenever the church ignores the Bible, it also ignores the voice of God who addresses the people of faith.” [God’s Holy Fire, 25, Kenneth Cukrowski, Mark Hamilton and James Thompson] In our rush to prove that Scripture is not the sole way God speaks, we may neglect the truth that Scripture is still a significant way God speaks. Recognizing that God communicates beyond the Bible doesn’t change the reality that God still communicates by the Bible. But this requires a change from merely reading Scripture to actually listening to Scripture. And it requires opening ourselves up to all the other ways the Bible says God speaks. We often tell others that the Bible is how God speaks. But the Bible also tells us that there are many ways God speaks. Scripture both proclaims God’s word and points to all that proclaims God’s word. The pages of the Bible are not only a tool for listening to God but also a testimony of all the tools for listening to God.
- Creation: Artists, authors, scientists and songwriters notice what some Christians often neglect: creation is a favorite means of divine correspondence. The sizzling sunset, the symphonic bird’s song and the slumbering baby convey the heavenly voice. The voice of God rings through the creation of God. The psalmist tells us that “The heavens declare the glory of God,” (Ps. 19:1). Paul tells us that “Ever since the world was created it has been possible to see the qualities of God that are not seen. I’m talking about his eternal power and about the fact that he is God. Those things can be seen in what he has made.” (Rom. 1:20 NIRV). Meister Eckhart writes, “If I spent enough time with the tiniest creature-even a caterpillar-I would never have to prepare a sermon. So full of God is every creature.” Mary Oliver writes, “It doesn’t have to be the blue iris, it could be weeds in a vacant lot, or a few small stones; just pay attention, then patch a few words together and don’t try to make them elaborate, this isn’t a contest but the doorway into thanks, and a silence in which another voice may speak.” And Elizabeth Liebert, in The Way of Discernment writes, “God is revealing Godself at every moment through creation.”
Consider today what God may be saying to you through Scripture or through creation. In tomorrow’s post, we’ll look at additional ways God speaks.
