SABBATH OF THE SOUL

Matt Patrick, Methodist pastor wrote:
“A life of listening. Listening is vital to being whole, both individually and communally. Our neurotic, fidgety hearts and minds, along with the hurry and digital distractions of our days, make listening feel impossible. Impossible to listen; and impossible to be listened to.
Listening is embodied curiosity. The failure to listen to God or to others, I am convinced, is the result of our addiction to control. What is maturity, being fully human, if not the relinquishment of control? What if happiness is the refusal to control your life and those within it? Misery is control; listening is a sort of sabbath of the soul, stopping to experience things as they truly are.

If control kills listening, curiosity is the engine of listening: childlike hope that believes that your life, the people within it, the God who loves you, are worth paying attention to. A curious heart is comfortable with providential ambiguities, patiently attentive to the mystery and beauty of God’s activity. A curious soul sits in disappointment instead of attempting to scroll away its pain; it doesn’t seek to understand one’s own grief but rather looks for its hidden gifts. Instead of resenting your life, in the words of the late novelist and pastor Frederick Buechner, you can “listen to your life.”

When we get tired enough of listening only to ourselves, is when we hopefully begin to listen to others and especially listen to the Father. The Father knows…we just think we do, but by listening we hear what the Father wants us to know: “You are beloved children, and I am well pleased with you.”
“I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock with one shepherd.” Jesus