Mark 4:24- 25, NLT - Then he added, “Pay close attention to what you hear. The closer you listen, the more understanding you will be given—and you will receive even more. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them.”
What have you done lately?
Our culture asks us this question in hundreds of different ways each
day. We have been conditioned to value
activity. . . production. . .getting work done.
Some have referred to this as the “protestant work ethic,” suggesting
that this penchant for continuously being productive has roots in our
faith. Certainly, even Jesus, in a
parable that sounds very similar to the above teaching, extols the virtue of
taking what we have been given and multiplying it (Matthew 25:14-30). Many bible texts, to be sure, support the
value of working hard.
Then we have today’s passage which talks about the value
listening hard - not casually, but intently for understanding. Unlike the protestant work ethic, this ethic
of listening well is not built into the fabric of our culture. Our culture is one of 30-second soundbites,
10-minute book summaries, and well . . . this is a bit awkward for me to say. .
. 5-minute daily devotionals. In most conversations that we participate in, we
often listen not for understanding, but in order to form an appropriate
response. Deep listening. . . the kind
Jesus is talking about here is rare.
Jesus is warning us that we are missing out by tuning out
too soon. The more we deeply listen, the
more we will deeply understand. Furthermore, to the extent that we don’t invest
ourselves in intentional listening, we risk losing what understanding we
already have. I have observed this loss
in myself times. I have, on occasion,
gotten to a particular point of understanding an issue that I begin to believe
that I understand it fully. At this
point, I really stop listening because after all, I already have enough
understanding. Though I usually don’t
realize it, I have closed my mind to further understanding because I have begun
to believe that no further understanding is possible. I suppose I have to admit that I currently
have “blind spots” in my understanding right now.
Fortunately, I’ve lived long enough and had just enough
humility to see some of my previous blind spots exposed. A conviction I held is shattered by an
experience that caused me to question what I thought I already knew. An experience of personal pain comes because
I was ignoring the deeper wisdom that I didn’t even acknowledge existed. A person who I was in relationship with broke
through my ignorance by acting in a way that defied my closed understanding of
them. What little understanding I thought I had was lost. To break it down to the most simple level, I
was not really listening to what Life was trying to show me – the spiritual
version of Attention Deficit Disorder.
Jesus is alerting us to the truth that there is always more
to understand. There are always deeper
levels to explore. But this is only true
to the extent that we are relentless listeners that are open to that deeper
adventure.
Question:
Prayer: Lord. Show us
our blind spots, the places in our understanding where we could go deeper if we
could admit that we need to. Amen.
Prayer Focus: Pray
for someone you haven’t listened to in a while.
Song: I’m Listening –
Chris McClarney (ft Hollyn)
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