Listening

You very good at it?

Someone observed that you have 2 ears and 1 mouth; should tell us something.

Eugene Peterson in The Message translates a portion of James 1 like this:

Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear. God's righteousness doesn't grow from human anger.

It is interesting to me that God a few times tells us to "be still." It's hard to hear God or anyone else if there is always noise.

"But we like noise!" Yeah, I know; me too. Lately I've trying to reduce/remove some of it; been turning the radio off. Also the TV (not as much; harder to do).

Listening to God quickly tells me that I really need to listen to others. Really. Listen.

My buddy Henri (Nouwen) says this:

Listening as Spiritual Hospitality

To listen is very hard, because it asks of us so much
interior stability that we no longer need to prove ourselves
by speeches, arguments, statements, or declarations. True
listeners no longer have an inner need to make their
presence known. They are free to receive, to welcome, to
accept.

Listening is much more than allowing another to talk while
waiting for a chance to respond. Listening is paying full
attention to others and welcoming them into our very beings.
The beauty of listening is that, those who are listened to
start feeling accepted, start taking their words more
seriously and discovering their own true selves. Listening
is a form of spiritual hospitality by which you invite
strangers to become friends, to get to know their inner
selves more fully, and even to dare to be silent with you.

Can you hear me now?

Who said that?