I Hear You!
“I know you heard me, but are you listening?” This is a common question we ask or hear in family life, highlighting the difference between hearing and listening.
As I was writing my last blog post, Heart Replacement, I began thinking more in-depth about listening. Listening is an important first step as we align our hearts, readying them for His work-- replacing our heart of stone with a heart of flesh. It occurred to me that listening is an intentional activity, while hearing is passive. Hearing involves sound waves interacting with my eardrum. Listening involves engaging my understanding and caring about what the speaker means. It means considering the implications of what the speaker says, and what action steps may be necessary.
Our teenager may hear his alarm but struggle with the implication that the dinging alarm means he should get up and ready for school on time.
I hear the football game. My husband watches and listens. I hear the referee's whistle, the snap count, and the deafening crowd. However, it quickly becomes mere background noise interacting with my eardrums. My husband cares why the ref threw a flag, whether his team passes or runs the ball, and understands the implications of each play.
I hear the lilting brogue of my favorite Scottish preacher but catch myself relishing his cadence rather than listening to the truth he disseminates for my growth and admonition. I realize listening involves intentionality, but I still wonder how this works with scripture. Is listening to God through Scripture the same as listening as a loved one speaks? In some ways, yes. God’s Word is certainly more weighty than everyday conversation, and we have the Holy Spirit to guide our understanding of Scripture, but some similarities apply. As simplicity is a good first step, I begin by reading a passage, and prayerfully trying to understand its meaning, its implications, and my proper response.
In Isaiah 53 Scripture declares that each of us has willfully gone astray, like lost sheep. That means I have willfully gone astray. It also declares that God laid my willful straying upon Jesus. The passage moves on, detailing the punishment that Jesus willingly received for my wrongdoing.
Isaiah 1:18 sounds like an invitation to become something new—because it is!
In the New Testament epistle of Colossians 1:13, it sounds like we were rescued from darkness and death, and placed into the kingdom of light and life. It sounds like Someone paid our insurmountable debt on our behalf through a massive self-sacrifice—because that is exactly what happened. That begs the question: Who would do such a thing?
Colossians 1:15-23 answers that question.
According to this passage, it sounds like God sent His Son, Jesus—God in human form—to redeem fallen humans by His sacrificial death. Since Jesus is God in human form, He could die a human death, yet also transcend death. Because He came in human form, He could pay our sin debt with His own blood. Since death had no permanent hold upon Him, He was able to lay down His life and take it up again as He states in John 10:18. Because He paid our debt, we are no longer debtors. When He passed from death to life He blazed the trail for us. It sounds like good news because it is!
As I hear this good news, I am humbled to my core, and bursting with gratitude, and a hymn of praise arises from my redeemed soul:
“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound! That saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found. Was blind, but now see!”