Jeremiah 7:25-28
I was reading Facebook yesterday and ran across a rant. Not just a rant, hate filled lies and vitriol. I was actually scared that there are people like that. There was no rational thought. It is partisan hate speach based on innuendo, bias, bigotry and half truths. This kind of personality, if you call it that, does not lend itself to listening. There is no possible exchange of ideas, no apologetic discussions, just hateful rhetoric.
Yet again ths morning, I ran across someone whose first words when we met were an angry retort and a sad commentary on life. I'm not sure if this is a test for me, whether my mere presence elicits such a response or they are simply an unhappy person. I am sure that my response was not heard at all, even in it's sarcasm which was to say "and good morning to you" , no more, no less.
When I read this passage I could not help but think how sad it is that after millennia, we still find it hard to listen. Whether we are too busy with our own lives, too unhappy with our own lives or too angry at what we don't have and someone else does, there is too little listening. Part of it for sure is the focus on "our" lives. Focusing your life inward is never a good thing.
No, the answer is focusing on others. When we do that, we actually enrich our own lives, we appreciate our own lives. I wish I could recommend a good book on listenng but I can't think of one right off. I do know I took an entire class on listening while in the seminary.
I do know that it is in listening that we find ourselves and true happiness, whether it is listening to our fellow man or our God.
Listen.
Yet again ths morning, I ran across someone whose first words when we met were an angry retort and a sad commentary on life. I'm not sure if this is a test for me, whether my mere presence elicits such a response or they are simply an unhappy person. I am sure that my response was not heard at all, even in it's sarcasm which was to say "and good morning to you" , no more, no less.
When I read this passage I could not help but think how sad it is that after millennia, we still find it hard to listen. Whether we are too busy with our own lives, too unhappy with our own lives or too angry at what we don't have and someone else does, there is too little listening. Part of it for sure is the focus on "our" lives. Focusing your life inward is never a good thing.
No, the answer is focusing on others. When we do that, we actually enrich our own lives, we appreciate our own lives. I wish I could recommend a good book on listenng but I can't think of one right off. I do know I took an entire class on listening while in the seminary.
I do know that it is in listening that we find ourselves and true happiness, whether it is listening to our fellow man or our God.
Listen.
From the day that your ancestors came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day; yet they did not listen to me, or pay attention, but they stiffened their necks. They did worse than their ancestors did.
So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall call to them, but they will not answer you. You shall say to them: This is the nation that did not obey the voice of theLord their God, and did not accept discipline; truth has perished; it is cut off from their lips.
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