Take back your most Precious Resource. Here’s How:

 Categories : A Culture of Listening

 

Over the last few weeks, we’ve examined what it takes to listen to God.  The next step is to give him your full attention.  For many of us, this is the hardest part.  I know God is worthy of my attention,  but quieting my mental chatter is still a struggle.  What makes it so hard?

My friend Kent Smith recently reminded me that our attention is our most precious resource.  Time is precious, but if we can’t focus our attention, we can’t enjoy or accomplish much during our limited time in this life.  So it makes sense that so many counterfeits compete for the attention that only our king deserves.

Sound expert Julian Treasure is also concerned that we’re losing our listening.  Even though my definition of listening is more holistic than his, I love his practical approach to reclaiming our attention:

 

 

#1 is an essential ingredient that’s lacking is most of our lives

#2 is a great activity to help kids develop listening skills.

#3 is another way to redirect attention when quiet isn’t an option.

#4 helps you as the listener get on the same page with the speaker.

#5 is a conversational model that emphasizes conscious listening.

Now it’s your turn:

How will you apply these tools to your relationships with other people?  How can these tools help you give God your full attention?



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  • Aric

    Something I value highly is spending time with other people. I often don’t mind much what it is we are doing, and I really appreciate deep conversations. I suspect that as I grow in being able to effectively “listen” to God, my desire to seek Him and be with Him will grow.

    This week I met a man who spent a lot of time talking. I was actively listening, but after some time, I wondered if he realized he wasn’t doing much listening. (I sometimes shared a thought or asked a question in between what he was saying). Eventually, he shared how when he is ministering to truck drivers, he will often just listen — and he said to me “like you’ve been doing with me.” Soon he asked me questions, and I shared for a bit.

    Actively/consciously listening to people shows that you value, respect, and care about them. I can recall many people who have spent time listening to me and how comforting and/or encouraging it is.

    God is ready to listen at all times to those who sincerely call out to Him. But as I’ve considered the topic of listening in recent weeks, I have become more aware of when others are speaking with me, but there’s multi-tasking going on, and I realize I’m not giving my full attention.

    I know God deserves our full attention at all times… But how about I start by increasing my conscious awareness of what it means to actively listen to other people (where I can more readily perceive the effects)? I could then also apply that to how I spend time with the invisible God (whose conversation is less readily perceptible to me at this time).

    • mlekallio

      I agree with you about listening to the people in our lives. If I can’t give someone made in his image my full attention when they are right in front of me, how can I expect to give God my full attention?Listening to each other is one way of giving God our attention.

  • http://www.dreamswithwings.weebly.com Stephanie

    Very good talk. I admit I couldn’t get the sound to go up any higher and so I REALLY had to listen. :-) I believe that there are times even when all we can “listen” to is our own subjective experience. The “realities” of our own particular set of circumstances speak quite loudly and put a damper on what else there is to hear “out there.” Our belief that we must “make it happen” also puts listening at jeopardy. We don’t want to take time for others or admit we “need” others in our life. And then of course there is the CONSTANT ring of the phone or text message that screams at us that IT is the most URGENT thing of all. It’s almost like we become “slaves” to our phones and the urgent demands of others. Overall though… and something that I noticed again yesterday is that we are just plain BUSY. It’s all a matter of degree and priorities. The more work we have the more money we make and the more projects we have to do or “things” we have to maintain. All of which makes us increasingly more and more “unskilled” at listening. Certainly I am the first to admit I have a ways to go in this. :-)

    • mlekallio

      I love your point about our subjective experience affecting what we actually hear. A big part of fluent listening is listening to what is said and unsaid, but not making it about us as the listener all the time. It also dovetails with the idea of Filters mentioned in this talk. With practice, we can learn when and how to apply them to gain understanding.