DAY 21 - Please Hear What I'm Not Saying

Luke 8:16-18 (NIV) ¹⁶"No one lights a lamp and hides it in a jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, he puts it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light. ¹⁷For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open. ¹⁸Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken from him."

How well did you listen to people this week? How well do we listen to the small talk, the daily chatter that makes up most of our conversation? Do we realize how important it is to another person to listen attentively and to take seriously what they say?

How well did we listen to our children - to the small but significant happenings in their life, to their questions and wonderings. How well did we listen to our spouse, to the petty annoyances that filled their day, the little but significant concerns of their life? How well did we listen to our friends, our neighbors, someone at work?

Jesus said, “Be careful then how you hear.” He is speaking here about how we listen and respond to the Word of God, but his words also have implications about the way we listen to one another. There is a hunger in the human heart to be listened to, to have someone really hear and to take seriously what we say, our feelings, our ideas, and our plans.

There is a hunger in the human heart to be listened to, but there is, and probably always has been, a famine of real listeners. The failure to listen is a sign of the presence of sin in our life, and part of the Christian life-style is learning to listen. We are called to lay down for a moment the concerns of our life to listen to our friends and family. Listening is one way we can all express Christ like love.

Be careful then how you hear. The choice is always ours, to ignore, to overlook, to shuffle aside the people who would like for us to listen or to hear them, to listen and to take seriously their thoughts, and feelings, and ideas. We have the ability to listen; we have the supporting power of the Holy Spirit to help us listen creatively and attentively to other people.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope February 8, 1976

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles