My Daily Pause

For so many, listening is not their strongest habit.

The Bible really captures the essence of human nature.

A group of people who do everything together should know and understand each other perfectly. If we are honest with ourselves, we have to admit the opposite happens most of the time.

Jesus is recorded in the gospel of Mark three times foretelling his death and resurrection. (Mark 8:31-33, Mark 9:30-32, Mark 10:32-34) All three times, the apostles missed the point. I’m pretty sure the core problem is they were not listening.

So many put their relationships under the same stress that Jesus must have felt with the disciples. We get into a routine, we turn on autopilot, then we forget to pay attention:

• We live, eat, and sleep with our spouses and forget to take time to have real conversations. Sometimes for days at a time.
• We interact with family, coworkers, fellow church members, etc. and can barely remember having spent the time with them.
• Worse of all, we go to worship, go through the motions, but often cannot recount anything that was said during the service.

I really wanted to bullet point a three step plan to help improve this for everybody, but we aren’t really ready for that are we?

We are not listening.

Once we listen to our spouse, we will know what they need.

Once we listen to the others we interact with, we will know how to contribute to the collective.

Once we listen to God, through his word, we will know how to serve him properly.

Stop.

Listen.

That’s one habit we should all have!