Deep Listening

Deep Listening: what does this mean to you?

This week, we began our exploration of spiritual practices for resurrection in the Recovery and Spirituality series. As I typed those two words, deep listening, my mind made a quick connection with deep massage when the depths of the muscles are manipulated. It requires a degree of relaxation and vulnerability that a cursory shoulder rub does not. And so too deep listening needs a willingness to drop some of the barriers that keep us at a surface level.

When we listen on the surface, our minds are often quick to make judgments and comments. We are formulating our response while only keeping half an ear cocked. We are not giving the gift of our full attention.

I can think of times when I have not been able to listen deeply. Sometimes it is because I am more desirous of making a good impression than of really listening. I can also think of times when I have not listened deeply because doing so would mean being accountable for the heart of the other. At even other times, I did not listen deeply because I was afraid of what I would hear.

As we explored why deep listening would be a spiritual practice for resurrection, Jen said resurrection is something so new that we cannot have any idea what it is like; thus we cannot have already decided what we think or shaped our responses. I like that. If I truly give my attention and am present to another person, to myself, or to God, then I will hear something new and surprising, not just something on the surface.

Help us explore empathy as a spiritual discipline for resurrection next Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. This Sunday, 1/12 at 10 a.m., we will consider powerlessness.

Song of Songs 8:13

O you who dwell in the gardens, my companions are listening for your voice; let me hear it.