"Active Listening, Boys and Girls"

In our Kindergarten classroom the other day, the school counselor came in to give a talk on "Active Listening." 

"Boys and girls," she asked, "what are some ways that you can show your teacher that you're listening to what she's saying?"

On the screen, the counselor pulled up a picture of a group of children who were "model listeners." They say quietly, their hands were still, their eyes were on the teacher. In response to the counselor's question and to the picture prompt, the children offered ideas for "active listening: "They're sitting criss-cross applesauce," one said. Another noted, "They're not hitting other kids." 

"Where are the children in the picture looking?" asked the school psychologist.

"At the teacher."

"When they're looking at the teacher, which direction are their ears pointed?" She traced her ear to show the students. The ear "horn" best caught sound waves when "pointed" in the same direction as the eyes and face.

"At the teacher."

Exactly. It was a solid point that I took home with me and have thought about a lot since. How many times do I think I have my eyes on Jesus, but my ears are "pointed" in another direction, deafened by the chaos of the world? Or, conversely, how many times do I think I'm hearing the Lord speak, but my eyes are distracted by too many other things?

Active listening implies both/and. Both hearing and seeing. Both seeking and listening. 

Let me point out a distinction between hearing and listening, between seeing and seeking. 

One is passive: I'm on a school playground, and the sounds of twenty shrieking, laughing children fills the air. I'm hearing it. I'm shading my eyes and watching the children play chase, swing on swings, build a fort in a herd of joyful play-making. I'm seeing it. 

One is active: I'm on that same school playground, and I'm listening for cries of pain, for arguing or bullying, so that I can help mediate and take care of the situation. I'm watching the child who runs too close to the swings and jump forward to pull them to safety, or I step forward to tie the shoe of the child who is likely to trip over their laces at any second. 

One scenario is inward-focused: allowing circumstances to happen around me.
One scenario is outward-focused: actively engaging with the circumstances around me.

It's not hard to tie this into where the Lord took me this morning. He brought me to Numbers 21:4-8: "[The Israelites] traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, 'Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!' [Note: "this miserable food" referred to the manna that God provided the Israelites to keep them from starving to death.]

"Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people, and many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, 'We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.' So Moses prayed for the people.

"The Lord said to Moses, 'Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.' So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived."

The Israelites were notoriously selective in their hearing. Time and time and time again, they forgot to employ active listening, actively turning their eyes and ears to the Lord and His words. Time and time and time again, they lapsed into passivity, i.e. "We detest this miserable food!" This food that has been pushed upon us. This food that You've cursed us with. 

At this point, I'm like my Kindergartners when a wayward class member talks back to the teacher: the inner *gasp,* the internal Ooooo, what's the teacher going to do? as the whole room goes silent as a crypt. The Israelites "talked back" to God. What's going to happen?

Poisonous snakes, apparently, are what happened. The snakes bit many Israelites, and they died, so the survivors begged for help, and Moses, in response to the Lord's direction, make a bronze snake and lifted it high on a pole so that anyone who actively looked at it... would be healed.

Jumping over to John 3:14-15, it says: "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life."

Active decision-making. Y'all, God made a way for salvation for all of us. BUT... that doesn't mean that all of us will be saved from judgment and an eternity away from God. The ones who actively look at the cross where Jesus was lifted up, the ones who actively seek, who actively listen, who don't just allow the message of salvation to wash over them... will be saved.

ACTIVE. Here was a funny mental image I had: an athlete prepares for his race on the starting line of a race track. His feet are in position, he's getting ready to run, the gun goes off, and... the track moves under him like a giant carousel while he stays in ready position on the starting line.

Y'all, put forth the effort. Break into a sweat. Pump those lungs. Let the screaming, cheering crowds encourage you to the finish line. Hebrews 12 (the whole chapter) is an excellent reminder of this exertion: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes [active seeking] on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross [the Son of Man will be lifted up on that cross, just like the bronze snake in the wilderness, offering life for those who actively turned their heads to look at it], scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart."

If Jesus endured the cross and scorned its shame; surely we can turn our heads to look to Him for our redemption. 

Further in the chapter, Hebrews 12:22-24: "But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel."

And then in verses 28-29: "Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for "our God is a consuming fire!"

I'm still plugging away through Revelation; today, I read chapter 16, detailing the seven bowls of God's wrath. The first six bowls are poured out on specific things: Bowl #1 is poured out on the earth, the second on the sea, the third on the rivers and springs, the fourth on the sun, the fifth on the throne of the beast (the antichrist), the sixth on the Euphrates River, but the seventh... the seventh bowl is poured out into the air, which is everywhere. 

God does bring judgment, God does judge sin, since He is holy. But hallelujah! The Mediator is Christ, and through Him, through Jesus, we have salvation from those sins and from judgment if we actively pursue Him!