Developing our listening

I want to post a few further thoughts this morning about how we can develop our listening so that we get the most out of hearing the bible taught. 

We need to move our listening into the foreground.  Many of us have grown up with music in the background of our lives.  We drive with a CD on or the radio on, we do the dishes or any other chores with the radio on as background noise, we may even work with background music.  But listening to the bible is so significant that we must not be content to let it remain in the background.  Rather we need to move it to the foreground we need to work hard to make everything we hear count.  We all expect pastors and preachers to be held accountable for what they preach and teach but the bible frequently warns us about our listening and how we will be held accountable for what we hear.  But how can we do that:

1. Follow cross references
Nothing wakes us up like a physical stimulus, now in most talks there isn't a moment when you are asked to get up stretch, touch your toes, turn around and sit down - (though maybe I should think of incorporating that!), but you can help stay focused, help keep listening in the foreground by turning the pages of your bible to follow the cross-references, by physically moving in your chair every so often (both of these also help the preacher by encouraging them that someone in the congregation is still alive and more than that they are following).

2. React to what you are hearing
Have you ever thought about your facial screen saver. Here are some light hearted suggestions so you can see which is your facial screen saver:

The Bulldog screen saver – They just look angry all the time, furrowed brow, bunched eye brows.
The Brick Counting screen saver– Looks round the room as if counting the number of bricks, chairs, carpet tiles etc... but never makes eye contact with the speaker.
The White Rabbit screen saver – Like the white rabbit in Alice in Wonderland always looking at their watches or the clock.
The 'To Let' screen saver- 5 minutes in there are no signs of life, this person hasn’t blinked since the first minute and you find yourself wondering if you should dial 999 with one hand whilst you continue to teach.
The Nodder screen saver – Their head begins upright but gradually dips down towards their chest before bolting back up again.  (We once had a new variation on this - it was the nodder with additional denture loss - quite a shock for the person sat next to them who thought it was a pen or something and bent down to pick them up!)
And lastly the Eutychus screen saver – These people may not drop out of the window and die but they are asleep.

That’s a bit of fun but there is a serious side to it. We need to welcome and encourage people to speak God’s word to us, and we ought to think about how our face and body language encourages or discourages others from speaking God’s word to us, and how we can utilise it to help us listen.

For example it may help to make eye contact, follow the passage, smile occasionally, nod. Engaging with someone is welcoming and helps us listen.

3. Rerun the talk
Imagine its Sunday church finished 30minutes ago and a friend asks you what the preacher spoke on this morning, could you give an answer?  How about on Monday morning, or Wednesday afternoon, or Friday evening? Our instant knee jerk reaction is to blame the speaker 'Well he wasn't very good so I can't remember.'  Or blame the busyness of life or some other lame excuse.  But if that's you why not re-run the talk, why not as friends get together to discuss it point by point - not in a critical well it would have been better if, but in an applicational way - asking where this really impacts our lives.  Why not download the mp3 so that you can listen to it again?  You could even encourage someone who couldn't make it by meeting up and listening to it again over a cup of coffee, or if they aren't well enough give them a potted version of it with Bible in hand.

We live in a culture that produces so much noise that we have learnt to relegate much of what we hear to the background.  We take every promise with the advertisers pinch of salt, listen to ever definite as if its a possible, and hear every hope through a filter of cynicism.  But the bible is God's word and it is far to real, to precious and to significant for us to let ourselves do that!  We must work hard to develop our listening.

As a side note those who teach and preach are often the worst listeners, we need to learn to take of the 'I would have said' filters.  Not so that we don't give feedback but so that we don't short circuit God's word to us and our responsibility as hearers as well as preachers.