Holy Listening…

Last Saturday, I participated in a retreat with the Presbytery of Florida’s Leadership Team. In that retreat, we focused in our worship, Bible study, and meeting on where our Presbytery has been in the past year and where we believe God is calling us to go in 2015. The phrase “holy listening” kept coming back to me during that meeting and I believe that is what the team was doing on Saturday. Yesterday and the day before (Monday-Tuesday), I found myself at another leadership training/mentoring event sponsored by Alabama, Florida and Mississippi Presbyteries. Once again, in prayer, worship, and discussions I heard it again. Holy Listening over and over again…

In Quin Friary in County Clare, Ireland, Denise and I found it easy to, in the words of Psalm 46:10, “be still and know that God is God.” Even though it was a ruin, the sense of the holy was palpable. And looking at the picture above, I return once again to that place and listen.  Spiritually speaking, I have always found certain types of places to be holy listening friendly. I am a water person and being near a lake, river, stream or the ocean always speaks to my soul. It was on a river bank that I heard my call to ministry in 1980 and it was along the Florida Gulf Coast that I heard my re-call to ministry in 2010. And how can the Celtic heart not hear the Spirit’s whisper in such holy places as Quin Friary.

This Sunday’s text from the Hebrew Scriptures is 1 Samuel 3:1-20. It is otherwise known as the call of Samuel. Samuel the boy, is working for Eli the old priest in the Temple as an assistant. At night, Samuel hears a voice calling his name. Three times he hears his name called and three times he goes to Eli, saying “Here I am, for you called me.” It wasn’t until the third time (third time is the charm I guess!) that Eli realized it was God calling the young lad Samuel. So Eli told him to respond the next time he heard his name called, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” It wasn’t until Samuel was prepared to listen for the voice of God, not for the voice of Eli his mentor, that he was able to truly hear.

How often do we truly listen? How often do we make the space or the time to listen deep within? Frankly, how often do we truly listen on a day to day basis. One of the difficulties I have with where we live is decent phone signal and internet signal. No matter what we try to do with the limited number of carriers available, the signal is poor. So when I am on my iPhone talking or trying to listen, it becomes difficult at times. Whomever I am talking with on the phone can easily get frustrated and I get frustrated when I can’t hear properly or understand clearly. This is a technical issue that I have to deal with and try to work around. However, I think it symbolizes something much deeper. How focused am I when I listen? How intentional am I when I speak?

There are lots of distractions and “noise” which surround us each and every day. I have remarked often to people, wondering how we ever got along before cell phones and devices where we can communicate instantaneously via text, email or even video call. And has this constant, 24/7 accessibility truly helped us to be more connected? In a very real sense, it has. I can be in contact with someone on the other side of the globe in real time when needed. I was able to connect in real time via my Blackberry with our Chaplain Corps team in Haiti during the Earthquake response five years ago while I was at a restaurant eating dinner. Yet it also means you are “always available” to the outside world. Pastors are notorious for always having their phones with them, even in the middle of meetings and workshops. I know for me, it has to be intentional for me to leave the phone in my room so that I can focus on whatever is at hand (retreat, training, counseling, worship, teaching, etc).

I am working on this issue personally. Taking time for intentional holy listening is imperative for me as a pastor and as a Christ-follower. How else can I hear the Spirit’s gentle whisper. If I don’t do that, then pretty soon I am no longer a very effective or caring pastor or Christ-follower. And you never know how God is going to choose to speak to you. I have been blown away personally how God has chosen to speak to me. Sometimes I hear the call to slow down and listen from the most unlikely of sources. These cows at Quin Friary caused me to pause and simply be. 

Because of that, my spirit was ready to enter into the Friary where I could look at things differently and perhaps, just perhaps, hear the voice of the Lord in a story about a Franciscan Friar who was the last resident of the Friary. But that is a story for a different time. So once more, I still my heart and quiet my spirit… Speak Lord, your servant is listening…