Listening
"This is my beloved Son; listen to him."
Another victim of our modern society is our attention span. Have you watched a movie made before 1970 lately? Did you become restless at the glacial pace of the action? One of my favorite movies is The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, a spaghetti western from 1966 starring Clint Eastwood. The movie clocks in at 177 minutes — almost three hours long. You definitely need to slow down your mind to sit down and watch the movie.
Compare that to today’s movies or the social media that we occupy our free time with on our cell phones. Movies rapidly transition from one perspective to another to create the perception of action through sensory disorientation (this is called “chaos cinema”). Twitter has reduced debate to 140 characters of text. Tik Tok, with one billion users in 2021, recently increased the maximum length of its videos to three minutes.1 It acknowledged in 2022, however, that its users find videos over 60 seconds to be “stressful.”
Chaos cinema? That sounds stressful to me.
What does all of this do to our ability to listen to God and hear His voice? As we come to understand that Christian prayer is a relationship with a person, and try to create the right conditions to enter into that relationship, we have to be prepared to listen.
Listening is a skill. It can be acquired by anyone through practice and effort. In our relationship with God, we likewise need to practice listening.
I was reminded of this the other day at the gym of all places. We had just finished our hour-long circuit training class. My friend Eddie, the owner of the gym, always gives a brief post-workout motivational talk. As a Christian, he often includes Biblical principles.
As the pep talk started, I found my mind wandering. The television was playing Sports Center in the background on ESPN and kept distracting me. I had to tell myself to look at Eddie and listen to what he was saying. He started to say that he had been reading the story about the loaves and fishes in John chapter 6 that morning.
"Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a multitude was coming to him, Jesus said to Philip, 'How are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?' This he said to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, 'Two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.' One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 'There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what are they among so many?' . . . . Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted."2
Eddie briefly retold this story, emphasizing that all Jesus did was give thanks to the Father for what he had in his hands. God then worked a miracle and multiplied the loaves and fishes to feed everyone. Eddie concluded by telling us that we too should bring what little we have to God in our hands and ask Him to do something great with it — to work a miracle with it.
I can’t speak for anyone else standing there, but if I had not focused and listened this profound message would have passed me by. God spoke to me in that moment and touched my spirit, reminding me that without Him we can do nothing. That all I can do is bring what I have to Him — all of which is a gift from God to be thankful for — and offer it up in prayer.
We find emphasis on the importance of listening throughout the Bible. In the Old Testament, we read that the Word of the Lord came to Elijah on Mount Horeb and said “Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord.”
"And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice. And when Eli′jah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him, and said, 'What are you doing here, Eli′jah?'”3
Elijah waited through the strong wind, the earthquake and the fire until he heard the still small voice. This is when the Lord spoke to him — in the stillness.
The Prophet Isaiah teaches us that the word of God goes forth and accomplishes God’s purposes:4
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and return not thither but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”
If we are not listening, however, will we receive it?
In the New Testament, we learn that Jesus Christ is the Word of God.5 At the Transfiguration, the voice of God the Father came out of the cloud, saying “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.”6 St. Paul tells us that “faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ.”7
A real relationship with God through prayer is the birthright of all believing Christians. Jesus said, “He who is of God hears the words of God.”8
The chorus of a contemporary Christian song that I enjoy captures this message:
“I don't wanna miss one word You speak
'Cause everything You say is life to me
I don't wanna miss one word You speak
Quiet my heart, I'm listening.”9
As Pentecost Sunday approaches this weekend, and we pray for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon ourselves and the world, let us enter into that stillness in which we may encounter the living God. Let us practice listening for the voice of God, saying “speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”10
When Tik Tok started in 2016, the maximum video length was 15 seconds (increased to 60 seconds the following year).
John 6:1-13, RSV-CE.
1 Kings 19:11-13, RSV-CE.
Is. 55:10-11, RSV-CE.
Rom. 10:17, RSV-CE.
I’m Listening by Chris McClarney (Breakthrough album, 2018).
1 Samuel 3:7-11, NAB-RE.