Learning to Listen

This morning at church we were doing a rather strange activity (which doesn't matter) and while we were doing it we were listening to readings and praise music. I started looking around the room at people working and noticing how they were responding or not to the readings. Many were just working and ignoring the readings (as far as I could tell), some were not working at all but just sitting and listening to the readings, some were listening and working at the same time.

The man next to me who was just visiting for the day was neither working nor listening, but just seemed to be sitting and waiting for the service to be over so that he could leave. He had his arms folded and though there was great wisdom coming to us from the front, and creativity to be had with a little personal application, he was choosing to have neither.

Since he wasn't listening anyway, I engaged him in conversation and asked him why he was here anyway - fair question I thought, since he obviously wasn't into doing stuff with us nor listening to our sources of inspiration. He rather plaintively asked me if we are "always like this" and when we have the "real" service - the one with Bible readings and a sermon and hymns. I chatted with him a while about Solace, how we work and what we are like - and that we don't really have those kinds of services, ever. I told him he was welcome to visit as much as he liked, but that if he was looking for traditional systematic Bible teaching he might like to look elsewhere. He seemed rather relieved by this permission.

This all raised in my mind the issue of listening. Listening to those around us - how did I know that he wasn't listening to the readings? Listening to the wisdom in front of us - how can we learn from experience otherwise? Listening to the Holy Spirit - more than anything I think this is a learned skill. Similar to learning to listen for someone's leading when dancing, listening to the Holy Spirit is hard to do and takes practice. I think I probably only here the Spirit intermittently, but increasing practice has helped.

I think the main thing I have learned about the Spirit is that He speaks in so many ways. Sometimes a "voice" or a vision, sometimes through the Word, sometimes through other people, through a sermon or a song, sometimes just an idea, sometimes it just happens. One of my most profound encounters with the Holy Spirit working through me I didn't even realize until afterwards! At the time it just seemed the coincidental flow of events. Truly, He works in mysterious ways His wonders to perform!