One of the most frequent complaints about us in Scripture is that we are hard of hearing:
“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you.” (Acts 7:51 ESV)
Our hearing is hindered by something unrighteous that must be removed. There is evil in our ears that needs to be evacuated. Why? So the work of the Spirit may continue. The more our ears are clogged, the more the Spirit’s work is curbed. The restriction in our hearing is an act of resistance toward the Spirit. If we desire to live in the flow of the Spirit, we will listen. To God. And to others.
Discipleship is, in a word, listening:
He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” (Matt. 17:15)
To live in Christ is to listen to Christ. We show our love for Him in the way we listen to him. Open ears are the truest sign of a hungry and holy heart.
There are many significant shifts we might consider in our journey. The shift from selfishness to selflessness. The move from lust to love. Progress from greed to generosity. But, in a very real sense, one of the greatest evolutions we’ll encounter is that from non-hearing to hearing. As Henri Nouwen says,
“The great movement of the spiritual life is from a deaf, non hearing life to a life of listening.”
You can tell that you’re loving if others can tell that you’re listening–to them and to God. Above all we are called to live and love in ways that clearly resound, “I. Hear. You.”
