Be Careful what you Listen to

The ability to hear is universal. It requires no more conscious effort than breathing. In the English language, we distinguish between ‘hearing’ and ‘listening.’ When we were children, our mothers would say, “when I talk to you, it seems to go in one ear and out the other,” meaning, we were hearing, but not ‘listening.’

Listening connotes ‘response.’ In the parable of the seed and the sower (Matt. 13), Jesus explains that the different types of soil are like people’s response to the Word—the seed. Though all ‘heard,’ not all ‘listened.’  The good soil is like the one who ‘hears’ the word and understands it—and acts on it.

In the Garden, Adam ‘heard’ God’s command ‘don’t eat from that tree,’ but in the end, he ‘listened’ to his wife. Paul says we become the slave of whomever we listen to (Rom. 6:16). Considering all the voices vying for our attention in our multi-media age, it behooves us to be careful what/who we listen to.