Journeys

To journey with Jesus means listening to his teaching—and like his disciples, sometimes understanding it, sometimes not quite getting it. However, discipleship is based upon the fundamental concept that lessons are to be put into practice as they are learned. The learning and the doing are a lifelong process.

How good a listener are you?
1) Since you think about four times faster than a person usually talks, do you use this time to think about other things while you're keeping track of the conversation?
2) Do you listen primarily for facts rather than ideas when someone is speaking?
3) Do you avoid listening to things you feel will be too difficult to understand?
4) Can you tell from a person's appearance and delivery that there won't be anything worthwhile said?
5) When someone is talking to you do you appear to be paying attention when you're not?
6) Do certain words and phrases prejudice you so you cannot listen objectively?
7) When listening are you distracted by outside sights and sounds?

In Luke 11:27-28 we find Jesus talking about how we as disciples should show that we have listened; As he was speaking, a woman in the crowd called out, “God bless your mother—the womb from which you came, and the breasts that gave you suck!” He replied, “Yes, but even more blessed are all who hear the Word of God and put it into practice.”

We are called to hear the word and put it into action. It has to be incarnated in life. Listening and forgetting or ignoring the word means missing the opportunity. God’s word is fruitful. 

Jesus must have been delighted to hear this praise of his mother. But he uses the occasion to reveal another dimension of blessedness, that of the hearers of the word of God. This means that we as disciples of Jesus we are deeply blessed by God!

Holy and Almighty Father, thank you for helping me see the very clear and simple truth of my need to obey your word and, through your Spirit, please give me the strength to obey it. Forgive me for getting so wrapped up in the nuances of religious discussion that I forget the profound simplicity of obeying your truth from my heart. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.