Listen, Listen, Love, Love

Luke writes these words in the Acts of the Apostles: Go to this people and tell them this: You're going to listen with your ears, but you won't hear a word; You're going to stare with your eyes, but you won't see a thing."

I learned to listen about four years ago, and I'm still learning. I learned to listen by taking part in prison ministry, where the theme is "Listen, Listen, Love, Love."

Listening, truly hearing, is an art form that most of us need to attempt to master for it comes with a risk-reward assumption. The risk is you don't get heard because one can't talk if one is truly listening. The reward is you take part in a new relationship forming. It's a wonderful reward, too, by the way.

I read a story about a man who was going to a party where he would be meeting his wife's co-workers from her new job for the first time. He felt anxious as the time for the party grew near, and wondered whether they would like him or not. He rehearsed various scenarios in his mind which he tried different ways to impress them. But on the way to the party, he came up with a radically difference approach, one which caused all his anxiety to melt away.

He decided that, instead of trying to impress everyone, he would spend the evening listening to them, and on occasion he would summarize what they had just said. He spent the evening listening carefully to them, responding with phrases like, "I understand what you're saying, and obviously you feel strongly that ..." Or on occasion he would say, "Let me see if I understand what you mean ..."

He also avoided voicing his own opinions, even though at times it meant biting his tongue to keep from doing so.

Later, much to his amazement (and mine, really) he discovered that no one noticed or talked about the fact that he was just listening. Each person he listened to talked to was content to be listened to. On the way home, his wife told him that a number of people had made a point of telling her what a remarkable person he was. One person said he was very charismatic. Another said he was one of the most articulate people she had ever met.

And he listened. Just listened. Didn't talk. He listened.

See, I have an idea that what most of us want, really, is for someone to care for us, to care about us. One of the ways someone does that is to listen to us. Really listen to us. Hear what we have to say on just about anything. It touches our hearts in ways we can't articulate. It warms our cold, cold hearts (as Hank senior would say).

The reason it is so vital in prison to listen is that the incarcerated don't want to hear our stories. They simply want to relate what has happened to them. Thus, if we are good listeners (or at worst we appear to be), they want to tell us their stories. Friends, so does everyone else.

What the Bible is, is a collection of these stories. From beginning to end, it is the story of a people and their God. Much of the scriptures is about someone listening to these stories.

Or not.

Luke writes: "These people are blockheads! They stick their fingers in their ears so they won't have to listen."

In other words, there are plenty of times we simply refuse to listen, other times we listen without hearing, and still other times when we don't care to try.

In Deuteronomy, God says, "Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth." Give ear isn't posting a bunch of ears on a string (yuck), but simply listening. Listen and He will speak, the scriptures tell us.

This day, this wonderful day that God has made, try a new thing for God, with God. Listen to Him, like your life depended on it.

Actually, it does.

Listen, Listen, Love, Love. That's life.