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Hearing GodHearing God while PrayingOf course, though this might be the kind of conversation we need, it likely is not the kind of conversation we covet! Rather we desire the more reverent moments when God is speaking, even when as humans hearing God we don’t always “listen to God.”Hearing God with More than Our Ears Hearing God is more than a “ quiet time”, sitting around, waiting for God to speak. The concept of “active listening” is far more critical in such devotional times than at other moments of spiritual search. Active, means searching, searching in ways not prevalent in ordinary searches. Say you are intensely desirous of knowing your beloved’s true feelings toward you. You don’t sit around waiting to hear those magical words—I love you. Indeed, those same words ring false when a woman holds up her favorite dress and so addresses it. Or when a man sniff’s deeply of a luscious pizza and intones, “I love you.” No, the words are not enough. But the kiss! Ah, that’s action. We want to feel the presence. We use the bible tools to find the meaningful passages that fill our hearts. When Judith is eager to share God’s love with the
elderly,
she doesn’t simply say, “God loves you.” Oh, she might say that. In fact, she’d be foolish not to. It is far more meaningful for her to say, “I came to see you today to share God’s love. I know what it’s like to want someone to talk to, and no one’s there to listen. And I’ll tell you something else. God is just as eager to speak, but people are so busy talking to the Lord that they don’t have time to listen.” Then a hug, an open ear. Who knows? Perhaps God will speak through that individual. ConclusionA woman once told me she came across a child---with a broken doll---sitting on the ground, sobbing her breath away. This woman sat on the grass and sobbed with her. She said that when she left the child, the little one had stopped crying, but the woman could still “hear the crying of God in a world of broken toys."
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