Listening

For modern human beings, reason and experience play such an important role in what is real or true.  Something is real or true only if I can feel it or if it makes logical sense to me.  Of course, what is central to such a modern construction of reality and truth, is the “I” or “me”.  Reality or truth is something that is constructed within me, because both reason and feeling are faculties of the inner self.  However, more often than not this construction is far removed from the biblical picture of reality and truth.  For example, Psalm 81 puts the emphasis on listening as the crucial aspect of reality and truth:  “…you called… I answered you… if you would but listen to me… but my people would not listen to me… if my people would but listen to me (81:7-13).  Listening requires relationship and community.  At the heart of the Christian faith is a speaking God who seeks to be in relationship with a listening people.  The psalm knows very well the dangers of not listening.  The alternative is the inner voices of the self:  “So (if not listening) I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices” (81:12).  God will speak to you and me today in many ways if we care to be in relationship with Him (seeking Him in his Word and through prayer) and other people (finding Him behind the face of the other that will cross our path today).  Are we listening to hear His voice?