Listening

Listening and waiting.  It is the overarching theme of Psalm 130.  David says, "Out of the depths I cry to you!"  "Let Your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy!"  David's plea would mirror our plea today.  We truly do speak out of depths of anxiety, despair, uncertainty and maybe fear.  We are crying out!

Over the last two weeks I have done two funerals.  One of them was a beautiful man who had lived 94 years and was known for his goodness, grace and patience.  Another was a close friend who I had known for 14 years.  My friend Bill was a golfing companion who was a consistent friend and a person known for some stellar phrases.  Both funerals became times for me and the family to do something we (individually and corporately) have difficulty with.  We all looked up, cried to the Lord and listened.

In my twenty plus years of ministry I have observed that most people (yes, I am grouping us together) have difficulty listening.  We listen to a sermon with an analytical mind, culling out either what we want to hear or what to critique.  We analyze, parse and are impressed when the speaker 'didn't use a note.'  But we fall short on taking in meaning, content and any wisdom that might be offered.  But, at a funeral, we stop, cry out, and we do something out of our nature ... we listen.  John, in the Revelation, shocks us with penning Jesus' words to seven churches, pronouncing that without changes, most of these churches will lose something important.  It is funeral-talk, and when that loss is perceived and grasped, they listen.

In Psalm 130, David enters the presence of God.  He asks for God's attention.  He acknowledges his sinfulness.  He praises God's forgiveness.  He waits for God, and he does this with his whole being.  He remembers that Israel, and David, have only one hope ... the Lord.  And he looks ahead to God's sure redemption, even of sinful Israel.  David listens ... for he realizes that when we approach God reverently, openly and patiently, God will redeem our situation.

Are you listening for God?  Or, as many of my friends and associates, is your listening clouded with anger, sword-rattling, drama, gloating, vengeful remarks, warrior-talk and all of the feelings that swirl around inside the human spirit?  David acknowledges that if we want God's solutions to our human messes, we must lay it all down before God.  David says ... "my whole being waits, and in His word I will put my hope (Psalm 130:5)."

That is the kind of God we have!  A God that we can trust.  A God with a good word for difficult times.  The God that comes to us when we have lost something or are lost ourselves.  The God that will change, if we let Him, how we see the world.  The God who says the truth (not perception) will set you free by God's word (John 8:32).  I, for one, am listening to THAT God!  My whole being waits!  How is it with you?  Randy