Listening

At A Holy experience, Ann Voskamp reminds us that

You never have to be afraid of just listening.

Because yeah, too many people treat listening like it’s only a pause before their own shock and awe.

Because real listening is really a radical act of humility.

Because when you let yourself humbly listen, you let yourself be ‘holy’ remade.

Because listening is how you plant resurrection — Lazarus’s ear had to first hear before he could rise up and walk out of the grave.

...When we listen to words, not to shoot them down, but to open us up — Grace can walk in.
When we listen to words not to indict them but to inform us, they can form us into a cup of understanding. This quenches the world’s parched places.

...There are times, in the early morning rising, if I sit close enough to the window, I can hear bird songs from up in the pines, songs that I have never heard before.

And there’s time to still long enough to just listen.

Is that what angels say when they make a visitation —

Listen — and do not be afraid?

Read more here.