Listen Well
I attended a Day of Reflection with Fr. Martin, a beautiful priest from Uganda. He visits our parish about once a year bringing joy and love, and asking for our love to bring back to his country.
The theme of the day was Listening to God. Here are three of my takeaways from his talk.
We have three ears.
Fr. Martin was trying to convey the ways we can hear God. It’s not usually through our ears. More often we hear him in our hearts. It would be nice to hear his audible voice loud and clear, but that is rare. (Although I know people who have had that experience.) So our heart is the third ear.
Since we usually don’t hear God audibly, it’s important to discern His voice, which means being able to differentiate between God’s voice and our own or the devil’s. Fr. Martin said, “When you don’t know the devil, you don’t discern well.”
What does that mean? The devil is pretty tricky. He lies and deceives. I can have a thought and believe it’s from God when it’s actually from my enemy. For example, I commit a sin and I feel bad. God will convict me in my heart that I’ve done wrong and give me a desire to repent, and he will let me feel his love through it all. The devil will accuse me and berate me, or tell me I’m beyond hope. He stokes my guilt and shame and makes me feel unloveable. I might think that’s from God when it’s not. The better I know how the devil works, the more able I’ll be to discern what he’s trying to do in my life.
So listen with your third ear – the ear of your heart.
Empty is good.
Fr. Martin said that to discern well we must be empty – empty of ourselves so that God can fill us up. We need to get rid of unforgiveness, resentment, anger, worries, fears. In all of these things, the focus is on me. But if I want to hear God, I need to forget about me. When I come to God empty, he will fill me up.
Too often we go to God with our to-do list. We do all the talking, replaying our frustrations and troubles, and God waits patiently for us to stop so He can speak. It’s not wrong to pour out our hearts to God, but when we only do that and don’t sit quietly in His presence, we aren’t leaving space for God to speak to us. Sometimes we need to go to God in silence, without an agenda, desiring only to rest with Him. I want to let go of my expectations and be open to receiving whatever God has for me, even if that means I don’t have a particular prayer experience. It may be dry, but that’s okay. The point is to sit with God.
Love is unstoppable.
By receiving and giving God’s love, we are unstoppable. Fr. Martin is one of those people who has never met a stranger. You feel loved when you spend even a few minutes with him. He shared a story of being in a store and talking to a couple of people about God’s love. He finished by giving each of them a big hug. A friend wondered why he couldn’t be as bold. Maybe it was because Father is wearing a collar and people would be more receptive to him. That’s possible, but I think there’s more to it. Fr. Martin’s love is unstoppable because he knows that God’s love is unstoppable.
Do we know that? If God has given me something to do, I am unstoppable. The disciples were unstoppable. They preached the Good News always, even when ordered to stop, even when imprisoned, even when flogged, even as they were being martyred.
I want to believe that I am unstoppable. Not because of me or my strengths, but because God is with me. It’s like Joan of Arc, the teenager who led France to victory against Great Britain. She said, “I am not afraid. God is with me, and I was born for this.” She was unstoppable!
What holds us back from being unstoppable, from believing that we can do anything God gives us? Maybe we wonder if we’ve actually heard God speak. Is this really God’s will? There are ways to discern, but the most important thing is to become familiar with His voice. Read how he called others in the Bible – Abraham, Jeremiah, David, Samuel, and the Apostles. You will begin to recognize His call, and then you’ll know when he is calling you.
We might know God has given us a call, but we worry we aren’t up to the job. That may be true. God called 12 Apostles who were not up to the job. He called Gideon who was not up to the job. He called Moses who had a ton of excuses for why he was not up to the job. In every case, God knew they were not up to the job and he knows we aren’t either. That’s why we are called – so that when we succeed, we’ll know it’s not because of us. We are just worthless servants who get the credit when God does the work.
Maybe we know God has given us a call and we don’t do it because we just don’t want to. This is Jonah. God said "Go to Ninevah" and Jonah went the other direction. That didn’t work out so well. When you aren’t obedient to God, it affects other people. Jonah’s disobedience caused a great storm and affected the others on the boat. Our disobedience affects others as well. And it also affects us because when we are not obedient, we miss God’s blessings.
What’s the answer to all of this? Love. I can be unstoppable when I love with abandon. I can love with abandon when I am able to receive God’s love for me. I can receive God’s love when I empty myself of ME and allow God to fill me up.
All of this comes from listening to God.
At the end of Father’s talks, we had a Holy Hour, one hour sitting quietly listening to Jesus. It’s one thing to hear inspiring words from an unstoppable priest. You can take pages of notes, but if you don’t bring that back into prayer, you will not be transformed. You’ll feel good for a while – until the buzz wears off. But that’s not enough.
Take it to prayer. Ask God what you’re supposed to do with your insight. There is a reason you heard what you heard. So choose one idea, one word, and write it down. Pray with it over and over. Listen to God. Empty yourself so He can fill you up. Then you will be unstoppable!
Questions for prayer:
1. What do you need to let go of to be empty for God?
2. What is your greatest obstacle to being unstoppable? How might you overcome it?