Listening

I get a quote from Henri Nouwen every day (OK, maybe not Henri Nouwen himself, but y'know... go to www.henrinouwen.org and select "Free E-Lists" to subscribe.) Today's reading is striking. During my sabbatical I really tried to cultivate the habit and spiritual discipline of listening.

Which is surprisingly difficult to do. Not just because we live in a busy, noisy world. My head and heart are very noisy as well. I'm always thinking, worrying, wandering, planning. I'm rarely still.

Yet I have always taught students and adults with whom I am working in youth ministry to learn how to truly listen to those we are loving and serving. Too often, we don't listen as much as just stop talking. While the other person is talking, we are either formulating a rebuttal to what they are saying, trying to figure out a way to get the conversation back on ourselves... or we are daydreaming. Nice.

Listen to what Nouwen says about this - what strikes you in this? Leave a comment.

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.

Lovely. Thank you Jesus.

Then I picked up where I left off in my current reading of the Book of Job. Look at what showed up today in Job 40:3-5 (The Message). Yikes.

"I'm speechless, in awe—words fail me.
I should never have opened my mouth!
I've talked too much, way too much.
I'm ready to shut up and listen."

Got it.