Where We Stand

Can I just listen?

That question was asked one time during a lively conversation between two women and a man. 

The man, feeling the frustration any male would who found himself in a similar situation where his words were being drowned out by two women passionately putting forth their feelings in a certain matter, and after trying for some time to get a word in edgeways, he finally asked the question meant to make room for him to talk, but he inadvertently switched the words “talk” and “listen.”

He was, by the way, assured, when all three could stop laughing, that yes, he absolutely could listen!

But, how many of us care to listen when we can talk instead?!  Not many --- men or women,  I think.  Not me, anyway, on too many occasions.

However, I believe the imperative to listen is being impressed upon me, and I want to share it with all who will listen.   Please pardon me for that pun, and please bear with me for a bit.

Who is your favorite person to whom you go for advice?  Can you name one, or maybe two or more?  Think about who we are hearing from regardless of whether or not we are directly listening to or looking to them for advice, for help with troubling questions about life, etc.

There are voices all around us – do you agree?  Most of us have background noise going on constantly that we live our lives to, much like listening to music.

Music may be part of what we listen to every day.

Something happened this week that got me to thinking about what I may be hearing whether I am actively listening or not.  And, what I may not be hearing even when I am trying to actively listen.

It occurs to me that what we listen to helps form our life views and beliefs.  For that reason, don’t you think we ought to think about what we think about?

Let me give you the backstory.

Do you ever have a few words, phrases, tunes that get stuck in your head and you can’t get them out?  They just keep replaying themselves, over and over in your mind, or maybe, they just flit through like a lightning bug and don’t stay very long but still you wonder to yourself where in the world did that thought come from!

Do you think we have a “mind’s ear” as we sometimes refer to our “mind’s eye?”

The things we ‘see’ and ‘hear’ that we don’t really see visibly or physically, just ‘see’ it in our mind’s eye, or ‘hear’ it in our mind’s ear….

Recently, that happened to me.  I could hear this catchy tune in my head but could only remember a few snatches of the actual words:  something about “some who want to own me and some who want to stone me” and “taking it easy” …. And “don’t let…. ??

I couldn’t come up with the singer’s advice about the life issue he was experiencing.

So, I did what I always do and asked my husband if he could remember what I was trying to come up with, and, as usual, he could!

Turns out it was the lyrics to an old Eagles’ tune entitled “Take it Easy.”  I couldn’t rest until I could locate the words and find out what the song was all about anyway!

Also turns out the advice I was trying to identify from those few words would have a sobering effect on  me:   a stop-and-really-think about-this impact.

I began to question how much of what I believe is based on Truth.

It is interesting to me that the guy described in the song that I was humming the catchy tune to was “standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona,” and most telling to me was what I perceived to be the ‘message’ in the song:  “Take it easy,” and “lighten up while you still can,” – whatever on earth was meant by that.  Seemed to me it was an invitation to decide for ourselves to take life lightly and not seriously.

He had seven women on his mind; and, according to the lyrics, what was he doing as he stood on that corner?  He was contemplating yet another woman!

Why on earth would he be interested in adding an eighth woman to the clutter in his mind?!  Well, the lyrics go on to imply that he is looking for that one woman who can “save” him.

Save him from what, I wondered, Just one more night of lonely; or, from a whole lifetime of disappointment?

I confess I have no idea what the writer of the song intended to convey with his words to the music.  Maybe it was simply to link a catchy tune with rhyming words.  Who knows?  I confess that I don’t know.

However, as I consider standing and listening, and perhaps taking life lightly, I realize again that what we listen to can have a real impact on us; and where we stand could well determine whether we stand or fall. 

 Do we stop to think about what we are listening to, and to whom, and more importantly, what message we are ‘hearing’?

I am reminded by the Truth of Scripture that where we stand is important, and to whom and to what we listen with attentive ears or casual not-paying-attention-ears matters.

Matthew 15:10 “Jesus called the crowd to Him and said, “Listen and understand.”  The Amplified Bible stresses His words as “Listen and grasp and comprehend this….” 

In the context of Matthew 15:1-20, Jesus is teaching the disciples and all the people hearing Him,  that to whom one listens is important. 

 I encourage you to read the entire passage.  In verses 13 and 14, what Jesus says is in response to being asked by His disciples if He is aware that something He has just said has offended the Pharisees, (whom by the way, Jesus has just called “Hypocrites!”):

“Every plant that My Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots.  Leave them; they are blind guides.  If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”

In Isaiah, chapter 46, the Lord is speaking to His people to remind them of who He is and who they are, and that trust in anyone or anything other than Himself will result in tragedy and heart-breaking disappointment.

 From verses 8-10, we  see His words and warnings:  “Remember this, fix it in mind, take it to heart, you rebels.  Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me.  I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come.    I say:  ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’”

God’s Words are weighty – heavy with meaning and with authority.  To Whom we listen is vitally important.   And, to treat life lightly and without seriousness can be a fatal mistake.

Isaiah 7:7a,9b:  “Yet this is what the Sovereign LORD says: … If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.”

2 Chronicles 20:20:  … “Listen…!  Have faith in the Lord your God and you will be upheld; have faith in His prophets and you will be successful.”

Isaiah 40:6b,7,8:  “ …All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them.  Surely the people are grass.  The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.”

Hebrews 11:1-2, 6:  “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.  This is what the ancients were commended for.  …  And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.”

Hebrews chapter 11 gives a very full account of all that faith accomplishes in people who choose to stand firm in faith in God, our Savior and Lord.   And, it also points out in verse 29 the peril of placing faith in man rather than in God.

“The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.”  Proverbs 18:10.

Let’s run to Him and stand firm in our faith with ears tuned to hear His word as we listen with ears fully open to hear Him!