The following is adapted from an article written by John Paul Jackson, 2/11, 2003.

 

Listening is one of the most healing acts a human can do. Why is listening so healing? It has something to do with the fact that listening creates relationship; it helps us connect to others. Listening also helps others become what they were created to be, because it restores their personal value and excites hope within them for their future. Listening is one of the clearest signs of genuine spirituality.

 

One evidence of a deeper spiritual life is the act of spiritual listening. Spiritual listening is quite distinctive from listening itself. When we listen to another in a non-spiritual manner, we are continually thinking about how we feel concerning what they are saying. We look for a place to insert our story into the conversation. Thus, we are actually listening for our own benefit. But, spiritual listening requires that we focus and listen for the benefit of the person telling their story.

 

Generally, we do not allow for time to truly listen. So, we gradually lose the capacity to listen. To truly listen spiritually, we must slow down our minds and allow a divine curiosity to permeate our thinking.

 

Listening requires that we prefer the other person over our need to tell our story. It is grounded in lovingly wanting to truly understand where the other person has been. It also necessitates that we value him or her more than we value ourselves. It is an essential element of what the Bible refers to as one-anothering.

 

Whatever it is in life, by telling our story, we find it easier to deal with our circumstances. People are literally clamoring to feel valued. Most of us have experienced listening to someone and realizing how different they are from us. Perhaps we didn’t share their values or opinions, but surprisingly, at the end of listening to them, we realize we feel more connected to them. We now find we value someone who initially, perhaps, we were not drawn to.

 

Thus, listening moves us closer to each other; it helps us become more whole, more healthy, more holy.

 

Not listening creates fragmentation, and fragmentation always causes more suffering. Speaking to fast, interrupting each other, monopolizing the conversations or giving speeches do not lead to wisdom or healthy relationship. Instead these habits drive us away from each other. It is impossible to build the Kingdom of God if we refuse to listen.

 

Wisdom collects and matures within us as we listen to what others have to say.  None of us have all the answers that we need for today’s problems. We must admit that we are not capable of figuring things out alone. We know from science that nothing in this universe exists as an isolated entity. It is God’s design that every Kingdom element takes form from relationships.  In God’s web of life, nothing lives in isolation; everything is interrelated.

 

A Greater Influence

 

In the long run, the individual with the greatest influence will be the greatest listening. If we want to influence people, we must take time to listen.

 

Inherent in spiritual listening is the attribute of meekness.  Meekness is simply how we act around each other, especially when others do not agree with us.  Is it any wonder the Bible states that the meek shall inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5)?  In His greatness, God gives back to us all that we give up and more.  It starts by listening with the ears of the spirit (Matthew 11:15).

 

As w mature, we find that how we listen to others is actually a sign of how we listen to God. To not listen to others is to reduce them to become a thing.  Likewise, to not listen to God is to reduce Him to an idol—one who does not speak.  If you are not hearing God, check out how you are listening to others.

 

But perhaps, the greatest feature about listening is that when we practice this discipline, it demonstrates to others how God listens to them. Thus, the distance between them and God beings to dissolve. 

 

 

 

 

 

listening — why we value it