What I pondered Wednesday #2

This week I wanted to share with you a video that a friend shared with me last week at Bible study.

There are so many things I could talk about with this video. It hits on so many insightful & powerful messages. There is one I want to focus on this week though.

Towards the beginning of the skit, God asks Tommy whether he wants to just talk or allow God to chisel. Then He makes a comment:

"Most of my children just like to talk."

For years, I've talked. And talked. And talked. I felt that since I couldn't actually physically see God like I see my friends and family, I had to do all the talking. When there's not a human voice responding to you, it's easy to fill that earthly silence with earthly sound.

Over the years I noticed a trend: nothing changed. This is true for all of our walks with God. The more we talk, the less He is able to talk. How can we know His will for us when He can't get a word in? How can our relationship deepen when we do all the talking?

Think about it with your friends: how do you learn things about your friends? You listen to them. You have a conversation, which is a two action. Both parties are actively doing something at all times; one is listening and the other is talking. Listening is more than just not talking though. Listening is focusing intently on what the other person is saying. Listening is not thinking about what you're going to say next. Listening doesn't actually involve thinking. It's an active process of reaching out emotionally & bonding with the speaker.

During these conversations we learn who the other person is. We learn, sometimes indirectly, what they expect from us and what they think of us. We learn so much about the other person and about ourselves during a conversation. They bring us closer together. Hopefully when you're at coffee or out to dinner with a friend, you're not texting. You're not surfing Facebook or watching TV. During the most meaningful of conversations you are focused entirely on each other.

The same should carry over to our relationship with God. We have to learn to be still, to quiet our minds and allow Him to speak. We must focus all of our energy on our God.

I have to admit, I'm not very good at this. But I'm making listening an active goal. As a result, I've found out more about God (and myself) in the past 48 hours than I have in years of talking.

The skit circles back to a similar point later on when God says:

"You were never holding me up. I hold you up with my victorious righteous right hand and don't you forget that. In this relationship I hold you up. "

We talk because we feel we have to maintain control and hold God up. We try to tell our friends so often what we think they want to hear. It's just that much worse with God. When you try & impress peers, they can see through it. Their body language will often send out clear signals that they see through you. When talking to God, there's no body language to read so it's easy to continue our delusions. But we don't hold Him up. There's no pressure to talk endlessly, no pressure to guide things. That's His job. All we have to do is listen.