He wants you to listen slowly
By Julia Fowler, Worship Arts Pastor
Text: 1 Samuel 15:22 (The Message)
"Then Samuel said, Do you think all God wants are sacrifices--empty rituals just for show? He wants you to listen to him! Plain listening is the thing, not staging a lavish religious production."
Writer Charles Swindoll once found himself with too many commitments in too few days. He got nervous and tense about it. "I was snapping at my wife and our children, choking down my food at mealtimes, and feeling irritated at those unexpected interruptions through the day," he recalled in his book Stress Fractures. "Before long, things around our home started reflecting the patter of my hurry-up style. It was becoming unbearable."
"I distinctly remember after supper one evening, the words of our younger daughter, Colleen. She wanted to tell me something important that had happened to her at school that day. She began hurriedly, 'Daddy, I wanna tell you somethin' and I'll tell you really fast.'
"Suddenly realizing her frustration, I answered, 'Honey, you can tell me -- and you don't have to tell me really fast. Say it slowly." "I'll never forget her answer: 'Then listen slowly.'"
There's a plaque in my office that my husband, Ralph, bought me several years ago. It reads, "Lord grant me patience, but please hurry." We've all heard the scriptures that remind us that God's timing is not our timing, but have you ever considered these scriptures to be modeling not just the duration of time itself (how long it takes to wait for something, or work through something) but how in fact you live in each precious moment as you work forward in the time you are given?
In the opening example, Swindoll is asked by his daughter to listen slowly. For me this suggests a strong intent on the part of the listener to be present and purposeful in the action of listening. It means the listener must willfully engage their senses and invest themselves wholely in the words and body language of the person to whom they are being spoken.
If we take this definition now and go back to Samuel it really does bring new meaning to the idea that God wants us to listen to Him. Samuel had it right … God wants us to spend time fully invested in deliberately directing our attention to the words and messages He is speaking to us--through His word, the world, the Holy Spirit and other Christians.
I encourage you this week to try your ear at listening slowly to your friends, your family, and your heavenly father.
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