Listening or Hearing

As a child, my parents would try to teach me how to do things. At the same time I would try to keep on playing or reading or looking out the window. Then my parents would ask, “are you listening to what I am telling you?”  My response would be “yes, I heard what you said.”  I could even repeat back what they said to me. However, somehow I would not always get around to doing what they had instructed me to do. What they taught me had no direct bearing because I had only listened to the words they were saying. I had not really heard them, because it was not “taken to heart”. We can listen to noise all around us and those sounds can greatly impact our life, or we can simply ignore them, which desensitizes us even more to what we listen to. Maybe this is what Jesus referred to people being “dull of hearing”.  The loud siren that signals that a tornado is immanent causes one person to go for safety and another to ignore and be killed. Same sound…different response.

“Take heed what ye hear”— Mark_4:24 KJV

One day Jesus was teaching the crowds of people that had come to listen to him speak. At the conclusion of his story about the Seed that fell on different types of soil, he spoke these words…

Jesus went on to say, "Pay attention to what you're listening to! Knowledge will

be measured out to you by the measure of attention you give.

This is the way knowledge increases. Those who understand these mysteries will be

given more knowledge. However, some people don't understand these mysteries.

Even what they understand will be taken away from them."

Mark 4:24-25 GW

The Bible teaches us that our words are shaping our eternal destiny, and by our words we will be judged. However, Jesus seems to be saying with equal emphasis that our hearing also has a powerful effect on our lives. He said, “he that has ears to hear, let him hear.”  All were listening, but not all were hearing. He could probably see it by the look on their faces, just like parents can often see it in their children. “Alvin Jay! Look at me when I am talking. Did you hear what I said?” The real question is, “are you really paying attention to what I am saying?”

"Two men looked out of the prison bars. The one saw mud, the other stars."  They both had the same circumstance to deal with—but what a difference their response made on themselves. And so to different ears come the same words, identical in pronunciation and syllable, and yet how differently they are interpreted. It is not really by the eye that we see. It is really by the soul we see. And it is not by the ear that we hear. It is by who we are on the inside that we hear.

 Some well known politician makes a speech and the news flashes it all over the country. The same day thousands of television stations broadcast it precisely as it was delivered. To some people it is the voice of angels and thrilling as the music of a trumpet. To others, hearing those same words, it is only a bunch of noise and means nothing to them. Nothing is registered on a clean slate. There is no such thing in life as a clean slate.  We measure everything we hear by what we have experienced previously in life. We can never be neutral to what we listen to. Either we will hear and be the better for it, or we will ignore and lose what we had of value.

A minister prepares a gospel message. He passionately gives the message to his beloved people. The same message which falls on every ear, and yet how varied is the reception!  Everything inside the hearer's heart rises up to meet this living message, either with welcome or defiance. We hear with all that we have made ourselves. We hear with every sin that we are clinging to. Every ambition, every joy or sorrow, comes to the hearing of a Gospel sermon. And that is why one person is worn out by it, and another sees it as something to be criticized, but the one who has a hungry heart, eats it up like bread from heaven. It is a great responsibility to preach, but it is also a great responsibility to hear.  Really hearing Jesus, saves us a lot of heartache. Are you only listening, or do you really hear Him?

Al Yoder  -  5/6/2011