“Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the
Churches”. I have heard those words hundreds of times but I have never given
much thought to what it means to have an “ear to listen”. I know that I am often
guilty of “selective hearing”, (hearing only what I want to hear and filtering
out everything else). It is a bad habit, especially in the dimension of the
Spirit.
But I am trying, learning to be attentive and to listen in a different
way. I am learning to listen closely to my life and the lives of those around
me. It is difficult. It requires patience because I have to move beyond the
shallow and superficial and struggle to understand an unfamiliar language. It takes
courage because I have to wait as other hearts and souls whisper or speak or
scream out things that are not easy to embrace but are definitely honest-to-God
truth.
What I am hearing the Spirit say through lives and hearts these days is:
“I am doing something new”. It is not a threat. It is not a condemnation of
what has been or is now. It is not an affirmation that a few people have been
“right” all along while the rest of us have been terribly “wrong”. It is
an invitation to be a part of something new and to risk being transformed in
the process.
