Hearing and Listening

Sunday morning retuning: We continue our journey through Luke as we learn what it means to walk “One Step Behind Jesus”.  The challenge from Sunday was to have our outside match our inside.  This can most readily be accomplished as we allow Jesus to change us from the inside out.

As I sit here listening to the first rehearsal of the Youngstown Symphony Youth Orchestra, for which my oldest son is a bassoonist, a thought occurs to me that I had last week while talking to friend.  The thought was the distinction between hearing and listening.  There is a difference.

My first inclination is to go to Webster to delineate between these two related concepts, but I feel inclined to draw from our common experience instead.  Think about a time when someone was talking to you and something they said required some sort of response.  When your mumbled, “Uh-huh!” failed to suffice, you were caught.  Hearing that is, when you should have been listening.

You know what I am talking about now, don’t you?  You could hear the sounds of being uttered, but  you were simply not engaged mentally or otherwise in what was happening.  But I think more than just inattention there is something else at work here at times compounding the issue even further.

This came to my attention a couple months ago in a different context.  My aforementioned oldest son had purchased a fine pair of over-the-ear headphones.  I had long scoffed at what kind of difference high-quality earphones could really make.  After listening to just a few examples of contrasting repertoire, I was a believer.  So much so that I went out and bought my own set, albeit a different brand. 

I began listening to some of the repertoire we do on Sunday mornings and suddenly discerned nuances I had entirely missed before having a better listening tool.  It was in that moment that this epiphany first happened.  You can hear something and miss parts of it altogether, even when you thought you understood it initially.

Please understand the point is not to drive you to go out and buy better headphones, although I am not going to dissuade you from doing that.  Rather, the more important lesson is that when Jesus is speaking, we need to do more than hear what He says, we need to listen.  Jesus point this way several times, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”  [Matthew 11:14]

It seems obvious that anyone who has ears to hear, will hear right?  If so, then why would Jesus go to the trouble of saying this?  Not everyone with ears hears.  And not everyone who hears, really hears, or listens as I am purporting. 

I was trying to do this even in the midst of our concert Saturday night, and our worship Sunday morning, as I helped one son put his shoes on today, and talk to another about the challenges of high school.  The Father is always speaking, even at times you might not think He would, and probably especially then.  We must listen.

So as the orchestra plays on, I ask you, are you listening, not to them, but the voice of the One who redeemed your soul?  There are things He wants to say to you today, starting with His great love for you, and continuing with His great purposes for your redeemed life!  I am listening.  Join me.

Jesus, we want to not only hear Your voice, we want to listen to what You are saying.  Give us ears to hear, and then the courage to obey.   In Jesus name.  Amen.

In Christ, 

Pastor Timothy