Devotional 12-13-08

Be Still
BE STILL! As a child (and youth) I heard that from parents, grandparents, school teachers, Sunday school teachers, my brother, my bowling coach, neighbors and… well, the list is long and distinguished. Needless to say that at the top of my priority list was letting anyone and everyone know what was on my mind. Listening – that was for other people. I know people even today that only halfway listen because they are thinking about their response, BEFORE you are finished with your story. I try hard not to be that person but, alas, I’m sure, that at times, I am. We are not good listeners.

I personally, and my wife will back me on this, am a fixer. I fail to totally listen because I am thinking of a way to fix whatever may be troubling you. I’m working on that. While with a previous company I attended a two day seminar called Selling Through Active Listening. It was designed to point out the listening shortfalls and practice skills for r-e-a-l-l-y listening. Once again, I’m still working on that.

I like to relate real life to the movies. (Kim will back me on this also) A scene from Waterworld has Kevin Costner compelling the busy, busy, busy little girl on his boat to listen to what is going on around her. The world is covered by water and they are out in the middle of it. She stops for perhaps a nanosecond and then declares, “I don’t hear anything”. His answer, “You’re too noisy.”

Do we sometimes think we are listening, to our kids, our parents, our friends, our god - only to discover that with cell phones, cable TV, internet and iPods that we are too noisy? I attend a study group with a gentleman that is as secure and deep in his faith as anyone I have ever known. He has related to the group on several occasions a milestone in his faith journey. It involved him asking God to tell him what to say and do while witnessing to a particular group. My friend was deeply committed to hearing the answer and after meaningful prayer time, he did. From then on he says “I ask and then I listen. God doesn’t speak to me in an audible voice but I hear it loud and clear”.

I was once forced to listen because there was no other recognizable sound. Before Kim and I were married, I left her house in Garden Farms following a fairly deep snowfall. I traveled the half mile along Norwood Road to Crossroads (Norwood’s intersection with Norway Avenue) and there met more resistance than my little car could overcome. I left the car in the parking lot at Cummings Hardware and began the one and a half mile walk home. I walked right, smack dab in the middle of Norway Avenue down the hill past Stamford Park and Forest Road, up the hill to Fatima and then down Avondale into the Walnut Hills area where I lived. I did not see another person, nor did I see or hear a moving vehicle. The snow that had fallen had dampened all of my surroundings and the crunch of my boots on the snow sounded like a drum and my shallow breathing sounded like a brisk wind. It was an incredible experience. I traveled a road that I had traversed by automobile a thousand times but had moved across so quickly that I never really listened – even with the windows down. That night I could almost hear the snow flakes falling on each other.

This advent season as we stand at the opening to a stable let us Be still and listen for the star that is shining, the mother that is praying and the baby that is sleeping, and know that it is God.

Steve Matthews