Said the night wind to the little lamb, "Do you see what I see? Way up in the sky, little lamb, Do you see what I see? A star, a star, dancing in the night With a tail as big as a kite, With a tail as big as a kite."Said the little lamb to the shepherd boy, "Do you hear what I hear? Ringing through the sky, shepherd boy, Do you hear what I hear? A song, a song high above the trees With a voice as big as the the sea, With a voice as big as the the sea."
Said the shepherd boy to the mighty king, "Do you know what I know? In your palace warm, mighty king, Do you know what I know? A Child, a Child shivers in the cold-- Let us bring him silver and gold, Let us bring him silver and gold."
Said the king to the people everywhere, "Listen to what I say! Pray for peace, people, everywhere, Listen to what I say! The Child, the Child sleeping in the night He will bring us goodness and light, He will bring us goodness and light."
Sometimes you hear a Christmas carol a new way and somehow it fits right into what you're thinking of. That was the case for me with this one as I've been caught up in the importance of listening. Do you hear what I hear? Listen to what I say. It was lines like that that have moved me into thinking of listening at Christmas.
We talk about Christmas being a "noisy" season. I know it's not just Christmas but somehow in the hustle and bustle, it seems that way. I don't know that listening is a skill the we practice nearly enough!
Do you hear what I hear?
I want to hear God speak. I want to know what He has in store for me and what He has planned for his people. I want to hear his invitations to be a part of specific kingdom work and I want to be ready for the opportunities to serve him and share about him. I want to know who he is. I want to hear his heartbeat for his children and match mine to his so that I can love the way that he does. To do that, I need to listen. As I read Scripture and it speaks to me. As I hear the still small voice of God. As I get to know him better and learn to hear his voice. I need to listen.
But there's more. This week especially, I've been confronted with the necessity of listening to what's going on around me, particularily as it relates to sharing the joy of Christmas. I've been thinking about how listening to what's happening in culture, about awareness, and how incredibly important that is for understanding the context to which Jesus comes, rather than to our own assumptions of what the world looks like. I've been thinking about how important it is to listen to the individual heart cry of the people around us we have opportunity to share with and realizing that it's so much more about seeing how Jesus is the answer to the questions they're asking as opposed to the questions I'm assuming their asking. It's about listening to what the needs of the community around me is and serving that way, sometimes sacrificially, as opposed to the way that I'm comfortable with or have time for.
Kingdom work, I'm learning is about using my ears even when I want to use my mouth.
It's not just about what I say but what I don't say.
It's about how well people feel like they're heard, and therefore valued in my presence.
I'm trying to listen. I'm working on it.
Do you hear what I hear?
2 comments:
"Kingdom work, I'm learning is about using my ears even when I want to use my mouth." Thank you so much for that statement, Stace. I've lately caught myself not hearing or listening to people, but instead focusing only on what my ideas are, and making sure that's all that's heard. What an awesome reminder of how our interaction with others shows (or doesn't show) Christ's love.
I want to echo what Dunn said. Listening is sometimes the hardest thing to learn. We spend hours trying to teach kids to listen to us because we want to teach them something or protect them or what have you. However, as adults we quickly unlearn this vital skill. What happens to make us think that we don't have to listen anymore? Maybe it comes down to our desire to do as we please with our lives and not as we are instructed to do. Maybe once you unlearn a skill it's that much harder to relearn it. Maybe our world is just so full of noise that we have to learn to listen that much more, just as we teach our children to listen so must we also learn to listen.
Stacey, thanks for the challenge. It really fits into what my week has been like.
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