Listening can be extremely rewarding

One of my 100 New Years Resolutions is to listen better, to listen WITHOUT figuring out how I will reply midway through the person's sentence. I have learned a lot about people today. Here are some of the conversations.

#1. I asked a elementary school kid to answer this question on a test:
Me: "Finish this sentence: I can always count on God to..."
Kid: "...forgive my sins."

Wow. I wish I always counted on that.

#2. Talking with high school students about whether technology (Facebook, Myspace, etc) has increased out ability to connect with others or decreased. The overwhelming response was decrease. Then one girl wondered if we'd ever get to the point where we didn't see anyone ever, with all things accessible by web. And one girl said, "If that happens, it will probably happen we we don't even realize. We'll wake up and realize, wow, I haven't seen you in a while and you live 4 houses down."

Made me wonder, how much of my life will change without me even noticing?

#3. Talked with some guys who spend the day walking all over town because "when you don't have a stable food source, you have to keep walking around to survive." I had never thought of that. I thought driving down the hill to Giant Eagle was a pain.

God gave you twice as many ears as you have a mouth, which means you listen twice as much as you speak. From an audiology standpoint, one would argue its so you can localize sound. But, it's humbling what I learned in a day when I stopped worrying about speaking and actually desired to listen.

Soulgasms

Okay. I'm going to ask we all be adults as we read this blog. If you're not sure you can do it, just go to the part in quotations.

From time to time, I experience something I call a "soulgasm". This usually occurs after reading a particular passage in Scripture or a book or a song, in which my soul completely releases and I feel a deep surrender to the Lord followed by intense contentment and peace.

Tonight, I had a soulgasm. It came from reading "Confessions" from St. Augustine. The specific quote was this:

"In all the things that I go over when I go to you for counsel I find no safe place for my soul except in you. There I can gather my scattered pieces, nor is any part of me lost from you."

So after reading this, all I wanted to do was lay in bed and meditate on the Lord: how he is merciful, patient, and keeps all our pieces when we return to him to be put back together. And I finally found contentment in solitude.

I found the chapter I was originially looking for after my soulgasm, which is fitting as it is about stillness. I'll share it with you, and maybe you can have a soulgasm of your own.

"Let's suppose the tumult of one's flesh were to fall silent.
that the vain illusions of earth, waters and air were to fall silent,
that the sky were to fall silent.
Let us suppose that one's very soul were to fall silent,
and by not thinking about itself,
were to transcend itself;

suppose all dreams and revelatory images,
all tongues and symbols,
all that comes to be by passing away were to fall silent
- for all these things say to whoever listens,

"We did not make ourselves (Psalm 99.3)
'our Maker is he who abides for ever' (Ps. 32.11)

Let us suppose that they were to fall silent
having aroused us with these words to listen to their Maker;

suppose also that he, the Maker, were to speak
- he alone, not through things he has made but through himself,
so that we could hear his word;
not through fleshly tongue nor through angels' voice
not through the sound of the thunder (Ps. 76.18)
nor through the riddle of a parable
but suppose we could hear him whom we love for all these things,
but without all these things,
just as even now we stretched out and with souring contemplation
attained the eternal Wisdom that abides above all things.

Let us suppose also that this state were to be prolonged
and that other, far inferior visions were removed
and this one vision were to enrapture and swallow up
and hide the beholder in itself
so that life would eternally be as this moment of understanding for which we sighed
would such a state not be what is meant by the words,
Enter into your Master's joy (Math. 25.21)?

...the world and all its pleasures became to us at our words a thing disprized

Not Alone - New Song

Not Alone - music/lyrics by Elise Hindmarsh

I get into arguments with the voices in my head
fist fights with ghosts in the mirror, on the bed
Jesus seems outnumbered when I call to Him
with legions of demons hanging on my limbs

and I know I’m not alone
no I know I’m not alone
with all the madmen in the world
I’m not alone

the radio keeps condemning me
for the love I gave away willingly
and that love is for fools or day dream believers
but whether its lost or its found, no one understands love any clearer

so I know I’m not alone
no I know I’m not alone
with all the lovers in the world
I’m not alone

I walk into church and hear the same 4 songs
I usually sing harmony but I don’t sing along
the reverend tells us that God is love
and each person made Jesus break his body, spill his blood

So I know I’m not alone
no I know I’m not alone
with all the sinners in the world
I’m not alone so

I know I’m not alone
yes I know I’m not alone
with all you people in the world