Wikipedia defines active listening as "a structured way of listening and responding to others. It focuses attention on the speaker. Suspending one’s own frame of reference and suspending judgment are important in order to fully attend to the speaker."
I’m not always a good active listener. Too often, I listen:
- To be polite.
- In order to catch the speaker saying something that I can argue with later.
- While thinking of my own bigger, better story.
- With an attitude of disbelief.
- With the assumption that what I’m hearing would be good for someone else to hear.
- Without really wanting to hear at all.
It is that last one of which I’m most guilty. How often do I want to hear what people are REALLY saying? Not the words the are coming out of their mouths, but the feelings and thoughts that are behind those words. Really hearing someone requires time and energy, and often requires some sort of follow-through.
I think Jesus sometimes wondered the same thing. Listen to His instruction from Luke 8:
“So pay attention to how you hear. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given. But for those who are not listening, even what they think they understand will be taken away from them.” – Luke 8:18
Jesus replied, “My mother and my brothers are all those who hear God’s word and obey it.” – Luke 8:21
Who are those that Jesus will reveal more and more to? Who are those that He is willing to call "mother" and "brother". It is those that:
- Listen with ears, minds and hearts really ready to hear; and
- Respond in obedience to what they have heard.
Listen and respond. Why should I really listen to God? Because only then can I really do what He asks me to do. What happens when I listen intently but fail to respond? He gives me less and less to listen to (Luke 8:18) and my relationship with Him is less than it could be (Luke 8:21).
How about you? Has God been speaking to you lately? Have you been listening? Really?
