What it Really Means to Listen: Spiritual or Holy Listening

"My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry . . . ." James 1:19

Spiritual listenting is a contemplative undertaking and not a problem solving task. It is essentially prayer....Spiritual listening as a contemplative discipline pushes us...to a level of listening beyond our own powers of analysis to the grace and the gift of divine life itself....To listen this way is to listen with the heart and mind and open wide. It invites us to be changed along with those to whom we listen.

Wendy Wright, "Desert Listening" Weavings 9:3 (May-June 1994)

Desert ascetics cultivated a heart engaged in intense listening. Listening for the Beloved's voice cultivated a wise and compassionate heart, able to yield to the movement of the Holy Spirit. Listening to the ebbs and flows of the Spirit was fundamental to a life of discernment. A still, focused attention was needed for fruitful discernment. True discernment does not presuppose how the Spirit will move, nor what God will say. In this life of cultivated listening, ascetics were open to the unexpected. They were willing to risk being surprised.

Desert ascetics were deeply aware that their cultural  backgrounds, educations, and life experiences framed and influenced listening...Ammas steeped their minds in scripture and other sacred writings in order to cultivate minds and hearts able to listen for God's voice. Growth in self-awareness clarified the lens that filtered and colored their listening. The clearness of the prism was the goal.

~ From Lauren Swan's book: The Forgotten Desert Mothers: Sayings, Lives, and Stories of Early Christian Women

Encouragement to Trust God! One of My Favorite Stories About George Mueller

George Mueller of Bristol is one of my favorite saints. He lived in the 1800's and was full of faith in God. His desire was to provide for the orphans around him. But how would he do it since the need was great and he didn't have money? He'd do it through prayer, not asking anyone for a penny in order to show that God provides and is completely trustworthy. He'd depend on God to nudge people. So through prayer, without ever asking for help or a handout, he provided food, shelter, and education for 10,000 orphans. God is powerful and good and works through his children. God hears our intercessions. May we be like George Mueller and seek God on behalf of those that have spiritual and physical needs so that he might provide and give us his power and wisdom to bring in as much of Christ's kingdom as we can. It is his doing not ours; we are simply vessels, like George Mueller.

Below I am going to include a little story about him from Streams in the Desert (August 17 for those who have this devotional classic) by L.B. Cowman and edited by James Reiman. I am encouraged every time I read it. I hope you are too!

I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me (Acts 27:25).

A number of years ago I went to America with a steamship captain who was a very devoted Christian. When we were off the coast of Newfoundland, he said to me, "The last time I sailed here, which was five weeks ago, something happened that revolutionized my Christian life. I had been on the bridge for twenty-four straight hours when George Mueller of Bristol, England, who was a passenger on board, came to me and said, 'Captian, I need to tell you that I must be in Quebec on Saturday afternoon.' 'That is impossible' I replied. 'Very well,' Mueller responded, 'if your ship cannot take me, God will find some other way, for I have never missed an engagement in fifty-seven years. Let's go down to the chartroom to pray.' "I looked at this man of God and thought to myself, 'What lunatic asylum did he escape from?' I had never encountered someone like this. 'Mr. Mueller,' I said, 'do you realize how dense the fog is?" 'No,' he replied. 'My eye is not on the dense fog but on the living God, who controls every circumstance in my life.'

"He then knelt down and prayed one of the most simple prayers I've ever heard. When he had finished, I started to pray, but he put his hand on my shoulder and told me not to pray. He said, 'First, you do not believe God will answer, and second, I BELIEVE HE HAS. Consequently, there is no need whatsoever for you to pray about it.'

"As I looked at him, he said, 'Captain, I have known my Lord fifty-seven years, and there has never been a single day that I have failed to get an audience with the King. Get up, Captain, and open the door, and you will see that the fog is gone.' I got up, and indeed the fog was gone. And on Saturday afternoon George Mueller was in Quebec for his meeting."

Thank you O LORD for a strong reminder of your goodness and power. You are at work. Amen.

Life in the Kingdom of God

This is a wonderful interview with Dallas Willard where he explains the implications of our theology. He talks about the theology of the Kingdom and the theology of Atonement. We live out our theology and our theology also frames how we share the gospel.

It is definitely a worthwhile read and will help you in  understanding gaps in the theology and practice of American Christianity.

Life in the Kingdom of God: Theology

Waiting for Fire to Descend

"Every morning I lay out the pieces of my life on your altar and watch for fire to descend." Psalm 5:3

Here is a brilliant physicist turned Anglican priest/theologian/philosopher/Benedictine from Wales now living in the US (President of Renovare) who teaches us about reading the Bible. I've met Chris and have been taught by him. I also had an extended conversation with him. He is dripping with humor and wisdom ... a young desert father. I highly recommend his book, Fire of the Word and him as a speaker.

If you're looking for a refreshing and wise and humorous soul for tutelage in the ways of God...here is one. His life and ministry are refreshing because so many American preachers/teachers are full of egoism and striving for numbers. He is not one.

I Wasn't Neurotic Until I Became A Writer (Killing The Desire For Success)

Here is a piece that I wrote for the Redbud Writer's Guild Blog. It came out last week:

http://www.redbudwritersguild.com/i-wasn%E2%80%99t-neurotic-until-i-became-a-writer#.TxV3A8fH-uQ.twitter

Fighting Calculated Apathy (Acedia)

"The fathers of the early church who went out into the desert are popularly thought to have been fleeing the evils of civilization. But this is a simplification. They thought of themselves more properly as going out to fight evil. The demons, as well as the angels, were believed to live in the wilderness and there could be confronted and bested in all their horrible destructiveness.

The besetting sin of the desert fathers was acedia or accidie, tellingly described as 'the devil of the noonday sun.' Acedia is spiritual boredom, an indifference to matters of religion, or simple laziness. Symeon the New Theologian wrote to his monks, 'Do not forget your special tasks and your handicraft to walk about aimlessly and in dissipation and so expose yourselves to the demon of accidie.' His remark is almost a commentary on the axiom, 'Idle hands are the devil's workshop.'

The ancient sin of acedia lies at the root of the pastor's or priest's refusal to heed the calling to be the instrument of spiritual growth. In 1977, Carlyle Marney, a distinguished Baptist 'pastor to pastors,' spoke at the seminary where I serve. I remember him asking our students if they thought after ten years they would still love the Lord Jesus or if instead would have become 'hand tamed by the gentry." Of course, he would have been exceedingly suprised if any had confessed that probably the latter would be the case, but the fact is that many ordained persons quickly lose a sense of excitement of the spiritual quest. They succumb to acedia in those forms that are to a degree peculiar to our times, and yet share much with previous centuries of the clergy.

Many of us when we think of the sins of the clergy recall the 'fallen priest' in literature...he was a boozer, a wencher, and had lost his faith. Yet, such a person is less a sinner than he is a casualty. American religion is obssessed with teh 'warm sins' such as illicit sex and gluttony. Because many of us are Donatists--believing the validity of the sacrament depends upon the moral character of the minister, which was condemned as heresy long ago--we become inordinately concerned when warm sins are committed by the ordained. What we fail to realized is that pastor or priest who succumbs to the sins of passion is fallen in the same manner as a fallen soldier. These are demons that threaten anyone who sets out upon the path through chaos. Some will lose.

The sinse that should concern us far more deeply are those that prevent the ordained from ever exercising their spiritual vocation. These 'cold sins' truly violate the mission of the pastor of a pastor to be a symbol, a symbol-bearer, and hermeneut. They arise not from an excess of passion, but a fear of passion. They are the product of a calculated apathy, sustained only by the embers of a dying soul.

Acedia is the root sin of the clergy as spiritual guides. Like a cancer it eats away at our abandonment to the love for God and his creation. It takes a number of forms, which have much in common with those of other centuries but also have their own peculiar twists in our times."

Urban T. Holmes III in Spirituality For Ministry as excerpted in:

A Guide To Prayer For Ministers And Other Servants (Upper Room Books)

American Christianity, Politics & Power Plays

I thought this was an extremely thoughtful reflection by David Neff:

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2012/march/political-conclave-dangerous.html?start=2