Tag: spiritual listening

Stop and Listen (Judges 2:16-23)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

Yahweh raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them. Yet they didn’t listen to their judges; for they prostituted themselves to other gods, and bowed themselves down to them. They quickly turned away from the way in which their fathers walked, obeying Yahweh’s commandments. They didn’t do so. 

When Yahweh raised up judges for them, then Yahweh was with the judge, and saved them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for it grieved Yahweh because of their groaning by reason of those who oppressed them and troubled them. 

But when the judge was dead, they turned back, and dealt more corruptly than their fathers in following other gods to serve them and to bow down to them. They didn’t cease what they were doing, or give up their stubborn ways. 

Yahweh’s anger burned against Israel; and he said, “Because this nation transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and has not listened to my voice, I also will no longer drive out any of the nations that Joshua left when he died from before them; that by them I may test Israel, to see if they will keep Yahweh’s way to walk therein, as their fathers kept it, or not.” So Yahweh left those nations, without driving them out hastily. He didn’t deliver them into Joshua’s hand. (World English Bible)

Listening seems to be a lost art and a forgotten skill. Genuine focused attention on another person through careful listening requires a lot of practice. Maybe that’s one reason there is so little authentic hearing these days – it’s just so doggone hard. Throw into the mix that a lot of folks like hearing their own voice, and you have a recipe for poor communication.

God is good at everything, especially listening. The Lord is the Master Listener. In fact, God is so good at listening, that divine ears hear the prayers of people all over the world. The same careful attention is given to both the little girl in the West who intercedes for her parents and teddy bear at night, as well as halfway around the world with the national leader who requests wisdom for decisions in a heated meeting.

The Lord God Almighty is gracious, merciful, and kind, hearing us when we call, and listening when we our hearts long for the divine. God always bends low in a posture of listening to all creation.

As creatures in the image of God, we were meant from the very beginning of creation to listen well. Yet, ever since humanity fell into disobedience, people have the tendency to talk more than they listen; and to sometimes refuse to hear what another is saying. There are even those who ignore God’s speech.

The ancient Israelites in the book of Judges were fickle in their attention to God. When things were bad, they cried out to the Lord. Because God attentively listens, they were heard, and a merciful divine response came. However, when things were better, the people went about their business, forgot about God’s deliverance, and stopped listening.

For the waywardness of the simple will kill them,
    and the complacency of fools will destroy them;
but whoever listens to me will live in safety
    and be at ease, without fear of harm. (Proverbs 1:32-33, NIV)

God sent judges, rulers, and leaders, to the people for their own welfare. But instead of graciously receiving this gift of leadership from God, the people were quick to be unfaithful; they refused to listen to the divinely sent judges.

Listening, really listening with focused attention, was not a high value to the people. They talked and talked, incessantly droning on, and so could not hear what God through the divinely appointed rulers was saying.

We must learn to listen well because God listens well. We need to pay attention and hear because we are designed by our Creator to do so.

Perhaps our society would not be so perpetually upset and polarized if we would just take the time to notice and receive advice through a posture of humble hearing.

Try this little exercise of listening: Take just ten minutes and do not talk, read, check your phone, or do anything but listen to the sounds around you…. What do you hear?… What do you think God is saying to you through those sounds?… How will you respond?

Stillness reveals the secrets of eternity, allowing us to hear the still small voice of God. Sound is amplified through silence.

If we desire a clear word from the Lord, then stillness and silence are the spiritual practices that allow it to happen. Life’s most precious moments are not always loud or uproarious; silence and stillness have their own virtues which connect us with the divine.

Never underestimate the power of doing nothing, and simple listening.

God of all creation, you have made me with two ears for listening. Help me to so hear and distinguish you through creation, and the voices of others, so that I will follow Christ with confidence in my daily life.

Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we to pray, and to give more than we either desire or deserve. Pour upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.

Remember and Listen to History (Deuteronomy 32:1-10)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

Listen, heaven, and I will speak.

Earth, hear the words from my mouth.

Let my teachings come down like raindrops.
Let my words drip like dew,
like gentle rain on grass,
like showers on green plants.
I will proclaim the name of the Lord.
Give our God the greatness he deserves!
He is a rock.
What he does is perfect.
All his ways are fair.
He is a faithful God, who does no wrong.
He is honorable and reliable.

He recognizes that his people are corrupt.
To their shame they are no longer his children.
They are devious and scheming.
Is this how you repay the Lord,
you foolish and silly people?
Isn’t he your Father and Owner,
who made you and formed you?

Remember a time long ago.
Think about all the past generations.
Ask your fathers to remind you,
and your leaders to tell you.
When the Most High gave nations their land,
when he divided the descendants of Adam,
he set up borders for the tribes
corresponding to the number of the sons of Israel.

But the Lord’s people were his property.
Jacob was his own possession.
He found his people in a desert land,
in a barren place where animals howl.
He guarded them, took care of them,
and protected them because they were helpless. (God’s Word Translation)

In addition to being a church pastor and a hospital chaplain, I hold two academic history degrees. I firmly believe the past is important. Having an historical perspective on just about everything is helpful in order to negotiate present circumstances.

Another way of saying this is that it’s imperative that we remember times from long ago, and think about all the past generations – what they faced, why they faced it, and how they dealt with it – because it all influences us right now, whether we are aware of it, or not.

Listening to others is important. Hearing and responding to the voice of God is necessary. And listening to voices of the past is just as crucial. After all, Holy Scripture is ancient, containing the voices of hundreds of people, as well as the voice of the Lord. The faithful throughout the ages have encountered all sorts of situations related to their religious tradition; and they remain as a great cloud of witnesses testifying to us and encouraging us in the way we ought to go.

In today’s Old Testament lesson, the Lord exhorted the people to remember, simply because they had forgotten. And whenever a people forget where they have come from, they forget who they are; and if they forget who they are, their very identity is in jeopardy of being hijacked by corruption, guilt, and shame.

Israel needed to recall their own history, because they were in danger of failing to tell their stories to the next generation, who in turn, would not then have anything to remember.

The great redemptive events of God in calling their father, Abraham, out of Chaldea, promising divine presence and property to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the miraculous deliverance from Egyptian slavery; and the wandering in the wilderness had to be lifted up and recognized, not forgotten.

In fact, every generation of believers needs to not only affirm their faith, but also restate that faith for the next generation.

And that is precisely what Moses did for the people. He restated Israel’s history and the giving of God’s Law for a new generation about to enter the Promised Land. Only with this collective memory of divine help and revelation would the people be able to make it in in the place they were going.

There is, I believe, a great collective ignorance of history. Many Westerners know very little of their own genealogy beyond a generation or two. Folks have little to no recollection of seminal events which have shaped the places where they live and work. It’s as if there is no foundation under their feet from which to stand firm.

For example, this is one reason why so many people of color get treated as if they do not belong – because the white folk in the room don’t even know their own history, let alone the background and challenges of those who look different than them.

“Every true history must force us to remember that the past was once as real as the present and as uncertain as the future.”

George Macaulay Trevelyan, Professor of History, Cambridge University, 1898-1943

History is about people, and not so much about dates and facts. And so, to be indifferent about history is to be disinterested, even calloused, toward other people. Conversely, to engage history and learn from it is to be transformed by it.

Historians are people tasked with describing and interpreting the past. They take the many historical facts and responsibly interpret those facts and events in a coherent narrative for the benefit of those in the present. That’s exactly what Moses did. He told Israel’s story.

Moses recalled the past, then retold it and revised it for his contemporary generation. All history is revisionist – and that’s a good thing. It just means that we faithfully tell the story of our past by clearly understanding that history within the historical actors own time and terms, as well as possessing an equally discerning grasp of the people who hear it.

An attention to history can guide us, and help heal us of our narcissistic ways. It can help dethrone us from the misguided belief that we are the center of the universe. History provides us with the tools necessary to hear and understand the other, enabling us to reconcile with one another. 

As we learn from reading and listening to historical narratives, we find resources that can bring transformation of our own lives and the communities in which we live. So, what are you waiting for? Read the Bible. Read history. Read the contemporary culture. Perhaps you will have a compelling, challenging, and coherent voice that will rise above all the other competing contemporary voices of contempt and corruption.

Great God of all history, thank you for the many faithful people who, through the centuries, have made a positive impact in this world.

Thank you for the godly men and women who, by your grace, have rewritten history books by their actions; who have heard your call to go into the world. We praise you for the good example they have shown and the difference they have made.

May you enable each of us to leave an imprint and legacy of your love and mercy in our spheres of influence, so that those who come after us will look back one day and say, “They made a difference.” Amen.

Listen (Jeremiah 42:18-22)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘As my anger and wrath have been poured out on those who lived in Jerusalem, so will my wrath be poured out on you when you go to Egypt. You will be a curse and an object of horror, a curse and an object of reproach; you will never see this place again.’

“Remnant of Judah, the Lord has told you, ‘Do not go to Egypt.’ Be sure of this: I warn you today that you made a fatal mistake when you sent me to the Lord your God and said, ‘Pray to the Lord our God for us; tell us everything he says and we will do it.’ I have told you today, but you still have not obeyed the Lord your God in all he sent me to tell you. So now, be sure of this: You will die by the sword, famine and plague in the place where you want to go to settle.” (New International Version)

We all find ourselves in trouble at one time or another. The real issue is whether we’re in trouble for no fault of our own, or if we’re in dire straits because of our own stubbornness and stupidity.

God tends to take a lot of flack from us humans, whenever we are in the middle of trouble. Yet, much of the time, it’s our own dang fault for not listening to God in the first place.

Whenever other people are hard-hearted and unjust, we’re ready for some divine judgment to happen. But when it’s me, all I want is some mercy and grace, some understanding and acknowledgment of my predicament. We have got to realize that what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.

Talk can be cheap. The ancient people of Judah verbally affirmed their dedication to doing what God would tell them to do. And then, like some sort of spiritual dementia, they seemed to forget everything they said, and turned around to disobey all they heard from God.

It all came down to an issue of trust. The people looked to Egypt for their deliverance from the Babylonian army, instead of turning their faces toward God and doing exactly what the Lord wanted.

So, the Lord, an ever-present power much like the force of gravity, let the people know that if they’re going to ignore that force, they’ll end up falling and breaking their bodies.

People make mistakes. They do stupid things. And they sin against God and others. It happens. But how we respond to it all is highly important. If we don’t learn from our missteps, and choose to keep living without adjusting our lives to God’s abiding presence in the world, we can expect trouble.

A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions.
    The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences. (Proverbs 27:12, NLT)

The ancient people of Judah had already suffered one Babylonian invasion. Now they were faced with yet another. The people wanted to flee. But their looking to Egypt was not a wise avoidance; it was an attempt to stick their heads in the sand, to put their fingers in their ears and shut tight their eyes. Instead, they needed to stay put and face the music.

The prophet Jeremiah reminded the people that, in this situation, there was a dual danger: It’s bad to go to Egypt, so don’t do it; and it’s really bad to disobey God, so listen and do what the Lord says.

Ignorance puts everyone in jeopardy. To follow through with plans that are diametrically opposed to what God has specifically said not to do, puts the entire community in the grip of a death sentence. After all, the Lord already knows what’s up and what’s going to happen if we foolishly amble into a hornet’s nest of trouble on top of trouble.

Whenever people are cursed, it’s typically because they refuse to listen; they don’t heed the warnings and end up doing something out of their anxiety, instead of acting with wisdom.

Unnecessary suffering comes from disobedience. Disobedience is a result of ignorance. And ignorance comes from purposefully not listening to sage advice, divine commands, and the wisdom of the ages.

It all comes down to giving focused attention so that we might hear and heed the voice of God. This is why the spiritual practices of solitude, silence, stillness, and contemplative and centering prayers are so very important. It puts us in a position to listen with open ears and receptive hearts.

The following are four guidelines of centering prayer, offered by one of the masters of this form, Father Thomas Keating, Intimacy with God: An Introduction to Centering Prayer:

  1. Choose a sacred word as the symbol of your intention to consent to God’s presence and action within.
  2. Sitting comfortably and with eyes closed, settle briefly, and silently introduce the sacred word as the symbol of your consent to God’s presence and action within.
  3. When engaged with your thoughts, body sensations, feelings, images, and reflections, return ever-so-gently to the sacred word.
  4. At the end of the prayer period, remain in silence with eyes closed for a couple of minutes.

The best way to avoid unnecessary trouble, heed biblical warnings, and listen to the divine is by aspiring and dedicating oneself to a genuine spiritual life.

St. John of the Cross, a spiritual giant of a prayerful and listening life, wrote in the sixteenth century, “God spoke one word from all eternity and he spoke it in silence, and it is in silence that we hear it.”

The reason God is so often silent, is that silence is God’s first language; all other verbal languages are but poor translations. Centering ourselves in prayer is a needed preparation for the contemplation that enables us to hear and listen well to the language of God.

Perhaps if the people in Jeremiah’s day did so, they would not have found themselves in such a dire predicament.

Almighty and everlasting God, make me ready, when your voice is truly heard, so that I may respond with glad obedience glad and steady devotion, silent and still to follow every word. Speak, Lord, for I am listening. Amen.

Listen To Lady Wisdom (Proverbs 3:13-18)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
Tree of Life, by Margarita Kriebitzsch, 2013

You’re blessed when you meet Lady Wisdom,
    when you make friends with Madame Insight.
She’s worth far more than money in the bank;
    her friendship is better than a big salary.
Her value exceeds all the trappings of wealth;
    nothing you could wish for holds a candle to her.
With one hand she gives long life,
    with the other she confers recognition.
Her manner is beautiful,
    her life wonderfully complete.
She’s the very Tree of Life to those who embrace her.
    Hold her tight—and be blessed! (The Message)

I like it that the author chose to personify wisdom as a woman. Maybe that’s because I have a wife and three daughters. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that they, along with most of the women in my life, seem to have an almost mysterious quality of insight and understanding which transcends my very cerebral and logical approaches to life.

What I’m trying to say is that wisdom isn’t measured with a one-dimensional test of a person’s mental reasoning powers, but also requires emotional intelligence, social intelligence, interpersonal and relational intelligence, and spiritual intelligence, just to name a few.

And Lady Wisdom has it all. She’s the perfect combination of all the intelligent factors which make for a complete, fulfilling, and good life.

Everyone desires a good life. Nobody wakes up in the morning, sits on the edge of the bed, and thinks to themselves, “I really hope to have a bad day today!” A person might get up on the wrong side of the bed and grump their way through the first hours of the day, but no one makes a conscious decision to deliberately have a disappointing life. 

Indeed, we all want a good life. Students go to school hoping to have a good experience. Marriages begin with the hope of having a good life together. New employees start with the wish that there will be satisfaction in doing a job well done. Parents dream of their kids growing up to have a good life. 

We want the kind of life that brings contentment, joy, and happiness. So, how does it come?

A good life comes through embracing Lady Wisdom. And she has always been there, as the very Tree of Life:

“I was there when God set the heavens in place,
    when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep,
when he established the clouds above
    and fixed securely the fountains of the deep,
when he gave the sea its boundary
    so the waters would not overstep his command,
and when he marked out the foundations of the earth.
    Then I was constantly at his side.” (Proverbs 8:27-30, NIV)

A good life has a basic respect and honor for God at the heart of it. Lady Wisdom understands this, first hand. She knows we are prone to being afraid. So, she assures us that the pursuit of true wisdom is worth it. With Lady Wisdom at our side, we have calm and confidence; we know when to take risks and when to be patient.

Most of all, our insecurities and anxieties begin to melt away as we connect with the image of God within us. Trust bubbles up from the depths of our soul, and we are no longer afraid of the unknown and what may happen to us.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

Proverbs 9:10, NIV

The fear of the Lord means to honor and obey God, to be loyal and submissive. We know there is a good God from which our own good lives derive.

In a state of trust, of calm and confidence, we are able to listen and hear Lady Wisdom’s sage instruction. So, if you want to live a good life – and not just survive but thrive – then we must adopt a posture of listening.

The prerequisite to any semblance of a good life is to have a teachable spirit, to give focused attention to Wisdom. A fool is a fool, first and foremost, because he does not listen. Instead, he is negative, complains, and spews advice based in partial information.

But the person who hugs Lady Wisdom and does not let go, has learned to be attentive to the voice of God.

Continual fear of people is a death-dealing practice. But the person who fears God by listening to wise counsel discovers a life-giving practice that will serve them well for a lifetime. 

The teachable spirit bends the ear to hear good advice. Such a wise spirit inclines toward acquiring knowledge and learning the skillset needed to live a spiritually abundant life.

For the Christian, therefore, we cannot learn if do not read. The Bible is a book. If the Bible was a car, I would tell us all to learn to be mechanics; if it were a fish or a deer, I would tell us all to learn the best ways to hunt and fish; or if it was a store, I would encourage us to learn about being good shoppers and consumers. 

Yet, the Bible is a book. So, we must read it, memorize it, meditate on it, and learn from it. Becoming familiar with the contents of Holy Scripture, and immersing ourselves in it’s wisdom, will mold us in the ways of humility and form us spiritually for a lifetime of peace, love, and joy. 

Maybe you aren’t a tree hugger. But I encourage you to become one. Embracing Lady Wisdom is the surest way to avoiding unnecessary problems and finding purpose in life. Indeed, because she is good, we become good.

Today, God of Wisdom, let me experience your good and gracious heart. Draw me into your very being, into the core of your love for me, others, and the world. Give me a glimpse of others from your good, right, and just perspective, in loving them, forgiving them, and delighting in the way they give glory to God through their very existence. Help me to discern out of that place of deep affection for humanity, that I, too, might be a useful conduit of your love in the world. Amen.