Learning to listen
This time of year, is often the most depressing and gloomy, sandwiched in between
Christmas and Spring. The days are short, dark, cold and overcast. Fifty shades of grey
dominate the sky and blue is a rare jewel to behold.
My daily readings have taken me to the book of Job. What a cheerless book for such a
gloomy time of year. Who organised that I wondered? I’ve never really liked the book of Job;
in fact I normally avoid it like the proverbial plague. I don’t find it an easy read in the literary
sense, consisting almost entirely of conversation. I don’t understand it. It doesn’t give me an
explanation. And I like to know….
What did strike me this time was how Job’s friends came to him in his suffering and sat with
him. For seven days they sat with him and didn’t say a word. They drew alongside him in his
pain and agony and stayed with him. That must have been a great comfort to Job. Then,
unfortunately, they decided to give Job their opinion on his suffering. They would probably
have been wiser to have remained quiet, but we all have our opinions and some like to make
them known. Job ends up hurt and frustrated by their criticism and lack of understanding.
What at first began as a great source of comfort turned eventually into more torment and
anguish for him. Finally, even God got exasperated with them.
It made me think; how well do I listen, really listen and try to understand. Try to appreciate
how the other person might be experiencing things. Not see their concerns from my point of
view but empathise from their perspective. And listen. It might come as a shock to realise
that not everyone views the world as I do. How well do I engage my heart as well as my
ears? Like Job’s friends at the beginning, I need to learn to be still and just sit with the other
person.
Maybe during those still, quiet, colourless days between Christmas and Spring that is what
we can learn to do best ….. listen and wait.
Wait for the first appearance of snowdrops and aconites, signs of hope that the darkness is
shortening. Listen to our own and other’s responses.
God never gave Job an answer to his suffering. Sometimes there are no answers.
Sometimes we have to learn to be ok with not knowing. God is often to be found in the
silence; so easy to miss unless we learn to be still, wait and listen.
The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is
about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered
the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an
earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but
the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper…….. Then a voice said
(whispered) to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (1 Kings 19:11-13, NIV)
Christmas and Spring. The days are short, dark, cold and overcast. Fifty shades of grey
dominate the sky and blue is a rare jewel to behold.
My daily readings have taken me to the book of Job. What a cheerless book for such a
gloomy time of year. Who organised that I wondered? I’ve never really liked the book of Job;
in fact I normally avoid it like the proverbial plague. I don’t find it an easy read in the literary
sense, consisting almost entirely of conversation. I don’t understand it. It doesn’t give me an
explanation. And I like to know….
What did strike me this time was how Job’s friends came to him in his suffering and sat with
him. For seven days they sat with him and didn’t say a word. They drew alongside him in his
pain and agony and stayed with him. That must have been a great comfort to Job. Then,
unfortunately, they decided to give Job their opinion on his suffering. They would probably
have been wiser to have remained quiet, but we all have our opinions and some like to make
them known. Job ends up hurt and frustrated by their criticism and lack of understanding.
What at first began as a great source of comfort turned eventually into more torment and
anguish for him. Finally, even God got exasperated with them.
It made me think; how well do I listen, really listen and try to understand. Try to appreciate
how the other person might be experiencing things. Not see their concerns from my point of
view but empathise from their perspective. And listen. It might come as a shock to realise
that not everyone views the world as I do. How well do I engage my heart as well as my
ears? Like Job’s friends at the beginning, I need to learn to be still and just sit with the other
person.
Maybe during those still, quiet, colourless days between Christmas and Spring that is what
we can learn to do best ….. listen and wait.
Wait for the first appearance of snowdrops and aconites, signs of hope that the darkness is
shortening. Listen to our own and other’s responses.
God never gave Job an answer to his suffering. Sometimes there are no answers.
Sometimes we have to learn to be ok with not knowing. God is often to be found in the
silence; so easy to miss unless we learn to be still, wait and listen.
The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is
about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered
the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an
earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but
the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper…….. Then a voice said
(whispered) to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (1 Kings 19:11-13, NIV)
Tim Sparkes
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