Monthly Archives: January 2017

Music in the Words

I grew up playing the drums – and I loved it!  As a teenager of the 1980’s in mid-west America I played all types of rock (classic, hard, glam, pop) and when I discovered fusion I was in my element.  For a few years everything, including my career aspirations, revolved around writing, playing and performing music.  In college I earned extra money by teaching drum lessons.  In these lessons one of the first exercises I did was to put on a song and ask the student to ‘feel’ the tempo and rhythm of the music.  It didn’t take long for me to see that some people have a natural ability, others have enough ability to be taught and others ….. well, they really like music.

It is an amazing thing to watch (and listen to) someone who has a natural musical ability – whether it be drums, vocals, strings, brass or woodwinds.  This person has an almost instinctive ability to ‘feel’ the music; not just hear it.  But, even those who don’t have an aptitude to play a musical instrument, most people have an appreciation for music.  The arrangement, the combination of melody, rhythm, lyric and tempo have a tendency to capture our hearts and transport us to a place that informs our emotions and inspires our thoughts.

When I think about Jesus’ instruction to consider carefully how I listen, I sometimes relate it to music.  The way my heart responds to a quality piece of music is analogous to the way my heart responds to the message of God.  Not the same, but the analogy may help us consider the process.

If I am to respond in faith to the message I hear then I must learn to allow my heart to respond – often before I allow my head to respond.   When I hear a new song, I try to allow myself to hear the entire piece without picking apart the different instruments – sometimes this is hard to do.  Even though a part of me wants to count the meter and dissect what the rhythm section are playing I have learned that my chances of appreciating a new song are stronger if my heart experiences it before I experience it with my head.

“It is with the heart you believe…”  It is within the heart music is felt and experienced.

When we hear the words of God, it is crucial that we learn to engage with our heart.  Hearing with our ‘head’ – through reason, logic and understanding – is not bad.  On the contrary, it is good; and necessary.  But, sometimes, it is limited.

Our hearts are bigger than our heads.  So, when I hear the words of God, I am learning to resist the urge to dissect the revelation with my reason just so I can place it neatly in the filing cabinet of my understanding.  On the contrary, I am learning to hear the words of God with my heart so I can respond with the faith that is quickened by my spirit.  To do this, I must learn to recognise how my heart listens to the melody and rhythm contained in the words of God.

I am learning to pay more attention to how I listen.

Hearts that Hear

How do I listen?  In what ways do I enable my heart to listen?  Or, possibly more important, how does my spirit listen?  How aware am I of the connection between my heart and my spirit so I can be more attentive to the promptings of my spirit?

We previously looked at the verse in Hebrews which said, the people did not consider the message of value because they did not combine it with faith (Hb 4.2).  This verse has several implications, but one implication is that the message we hear can actually lead us into a faith response – if we can understand how we listen.

The people did not combine faith to what they heard because they didn’t recognise the faith which came through the message they heard.  The message of God’s goodness and provision of redemption fell on deaf ears (so-to-speak) because the hearts of the people were hard (Hb 3.15).  Even though God’s words are Spirit and Life the people did not ‘hear’ because their hearts had been hardened through unbelief (Hb 3.19).

This raises a question for me.  Had their hearts not been hard, could they have responded differently?  If they had an element of unbelief, but had not yet gone fully into a hard heart, would they have responded differently?  It may be difficult to answer for that specific group of people.  But, I don’t think their descent has to be assumed as a general rule for all people.  Those people were unaware of ‘how to listen’ but I think the scenario could be different if someone had the smallest element of belief – even if it is mustard seed small.

I am convinced there is a link between belief and the response of the heart.  A heart that is sensitive to the different ways God speaks is able to listen, able to hear and able to choose to combine faith to what it hears.

What’s even more encouraging about this is that God has told us faith (belief) is not solely our responsibility.  The words of God are Spirit and Life, and when the soft heart hears the words of God, our spirit awakens to the essence and substance of God contained in the message and responds with belief.  This is, I believe, part of what happens when Paul says that faith comes by hearing (Rom 10.17).

 

Consider Carefully & Train the Senses

Giving careful consideration to how I listen is a challenge.  It’s a little bit like trying to identify how I think, or the way I choose one option over another.

In my lighter moments I think of the old Kung-Fu films I watched as a boy.  No matter what else was happening in any given film, there was always a scene in which the young apprentice was left dazed and confused by the wisdom of the Master Teacher.  Characteristically, the Master rarely explained himself to the apprentice, he merely waited until the apprentice was ready to hear the deeper pearls of wisdom.

I realise this analogy falls short on a lot of levels but there are similarities in what we’re discussing.  How we listen, how we understand the many ways we hear and perceive God, is a tool that will enable us to mature in relationship with God.

The author of Hebrews made a statement that is a little unsettling.  He told his readers that what he had to say was hard to explain because they (his readers) had become dull in their understanding (Hb 5.11).  He told them they were still in need of someone to teach them the basic elements of the word of God and went on to say they were unacquainted with the word of righteousness (Hb 5.13).

Imagine hearing that!  “Young Grasshopper, you are unfamiliar with the Word of God!  Because of your dullness, the things you must learn will be hard for you to understand.”

His statement in verse 14 is the one that has captured my attention.  “But solid food is for the mature, for those whose faculties have been trained by practice…” (NRSV).   The Greek could be literally translated ‘faculties of perception’.  Another English version (NAS) translates this by saying, ‘having their senses trained’.

Whichever translation we choose to read, the significance of this phrase reinforces that practice and training are necessary if we are to grow into maturity.  If training and practice are required, there is an implication that we may not always discern correctly when it comes to hearing the Word of righteousness.  That means there is an element of trying to identify what we sense in our heart and being willing to learn from our mistakes when we don’t get it correct.  (A further implication is that those who lead have a responsibility to support, encourage and provide safe structures for people to grow in this.)

But regardless of what anyone else does, it is my obligation to engage in this training of my senses (faculties of perception).  I do so, not because I want to be the next Master of the Christian dojo.  I do so because I want to grow into maturity and deepen my relationship with the One whom I believe.  I do so because I want to be open to any and all the ways he may choose to speak to me.

 

Hearing the Word & Receiving the Seed

As we embark on the journey of recognising the importance of WHO we believe as opposed to WHAT we believe, the principle of applying faith to what we hear is a central component.

On one hand, since we’re more focused on WHO rather than WHAT, it can sound contradictory to say that we apply faith in the message we hear.  The question could be asked, ‘Shouldn’t we apply faith in God, rather than in the message we hear from God?’  But there doesn’t need to be any contradiction in this.

When God speaks, his message reveals an aspect of his nature.  Because of who he is, his message carries his life-giving essence and the substance of his Spirit (Jn 6.63).  This could be a reason the Apostle Paul said, “Faith comes by hearing” (Rom 10.17).

I think of the process in this way. When we hear the message from God the soft heart is predisposed to recognise the life and substance of God contained within the words we hear.  With the recognition of this aspect of God’s nature, faith is stirred within our spirit which enables the heart to respond in faith.  It’s as if the words of God contain the active ingredient which causes our spirit to respond with faith.  Remember, as we’ve discussed, faith is the by-product of belief.

In a few places, Scripture describes the word of God as the ‘seed’ of God (the Greek word used here is “sperma” [1 Jn 3.9]).  In the natural systems of reproduction, the role of the seed is to fertilise the egg.  Imagine that our faith is the ‘egg’ which is fertilised by the ‘seed’ of God.  When we combine our faith with the seed of God, a deeper awareness of his nature is conceived within our hearts.

In the natural, life must be cared for and nurtured.  In the same way, we need to learn how to nurture the newly received revelation in order to integrate it into our lives and decision-making.  It’s as if the newly grasped revelation needs to develop within the womb of our soul.

How Do I Listen?

Two of the gospel writers tell the same story in a slightly different way.  Mark writes that Jesus said, “Consider carefully what you hear” (Mk 4.24).  But Luke, in his retelling, writes the words of Jesus this way, “Consider carefully how you listen” (Lk 8.18).

The general context of Luke’s version is much the same as the context in which Mark tells the story.  In both gospels, Jesus is teaching that what is hidden will be brought out into the open so it is important to consider carefully how (or what) you hear.  Both authors even use the same Greek words for consider carefully (it can also be translated as “be careful”, or “pay attention”).

The difference between the two versions is in the grammatical construction.  Mark clearly uses ‘what’ and Luke clearly uses ‘how’.  The translations of these are not interchangeable nor are they usually interpreted the same.  So, it would appear, each author intended to communicate a different perspective on the same story.  Mark wanted us to think about ‘what’ we hear.  And Luke, wanted us to think about ‘how’ we hear.  Fascinating.

Before coming across this statement in the book of Luke I don’t know if I ever really gave consideration to how I listened.  Sure, I’ve thought about the mechanics of how – my employers have even paid for me to take personal development courses designed to help me become a better listener.  But somehow, I don’t think Jesus was indicating that he wanted us to use NLP strategies or reflective listening principles.

In the natural I can look at ways to break down the listening process. In the first part, we listen by hearing words which convey thoughts, concepts and ideas that articulate a message with a particular meaning.  The second part of listening, is when we use logic and reason to judge the validity and accuracy of what we hear against accepted principles or facts.

I’m also aware of times when I’ve been able to listen beyond the words of what someone is saying in order to understand the ‘heart’ of what they’re saying.  But, in these circumstances, I can often explain my ‘discernment’ by reading their non-verbal cues, listening to the tone of their voice, or asking Holy Spirit for wisdom to understand the person’s needs.

But, somehow, I don’t think that is what Jesus is getting at when he says to consider carefully how we listen.  Perhaps he is telling us to be a little more aware of how we judge the validity or accuracy of what we hear.  Perhaps he is warning us about the way in which we tend to filter what we hear through the paradigm of what we think we understand.

But, these considerations seem to put more emphasis on listening with the mind.  And in biblical perspectives, the heart plays a greater role in discerning than does the mind.  So, I’m left sensing that Jesus is saying something more.  I can’t help concluding that he is trying to get us to consider the role our heart plays in how we hear what God is saying?

 

The mind will usually attempt to break down what we hear into something we can easily comprehend or categorise.  We often seek understanding in order to have an explanation – and we often find a type of peace when we can explain something, or when it “makes sense”.

But the heart has a greater capacity for spiritual engagement; it has a different way of understanding.  The understanding of the heart often embraces ideas, concepts or principles that we cannot yet explain.  It is through this embrace that we discover more of the ‘peace that passes understanding’ (Phil 4.7).

Consider carefully how I listen.