Listening
to Our Neighbor
by
Scott Stoner
In his reflection
yesterday, Randall Curtis beautifully introduced our theme for this week of
“listening to our neighbor.” Along with focusing on the current theme, I’d like
to note that continuing any of the contemplative practices that Robbin Brent
introduced last week will enhance our ability to hear God’s call to listen to
and love our neighbor. And as we connect more deeply with the Holy in our
lives, a natural fruit of that connection will be to more deeply and genuinely
listen to our neighbor.
Jesus taught us that one of the great commandments is to
love our neighbors as we love ourselves. The reality is that we do tend to do
just that. For example, if we are impatient and critical with ourselves, we
will tend to be impatient and critical with others. And if we are kind and
forgiving of ourselves, we will tend to be that way with others, as well.
As I wrote in an
earlier reflection in this devotional, I believe there is a similar connection
between how we listen to ourselves and how we listen to our neighbors. We will
discover just how hard it is to truly listen to our neighbors, especially when
we disagree with them, or when listening to them requires us to stretch outside
our comfort zones. But as we see in the Gospel passage for yesterday about
Jesus turning over the tables of the money changers, Jesus sometimes has a way
of challenging us to listen in ways that can make us uncomfortable.
I pray that we
will grow in our ability to listen to our neighbors this week.
Making
It Personal:
What do you think of the idea that listening to others is
an act of love?
What do you think
of the idea that we can’t fully love someone until we are willing to truly
listen to them?
If you asked
people who know you well, do you think they would affirm that you are a good
listener?
Living
Well Through Lent 2021
Copyright
©2021 Scott Stoner.
All
rights reserved.
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