[easyazon_image align=”left” height=”160″ identifier=”0830844120″ locale=”US” src=”https://englewoodreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/41wIiXdBM5L.SL160.jpg” tag=”douloschristo-20″ width=”107″]PAGE 2: Adam McHugh – A Listening Life
Third our theology and Christian life must take serious God’s revelation of himself through creation (see Psalm 8:3-4; 19:1-6; 29:3-9; Isaiah 40:26; Matthew 6:26-30; Romans 1:19-20). We do not delight and listen to creation because it is God (pantheism) or because God is in all creation (panentheism), rather we listen to creation because it points “people to the God who prepared the worlds by his word, making what is visible out of what is invisible” (109). McHugh also reminds us that just as we groan because of sin’s consequences, creation likewise groans. While the creation does declare the glory of God, creation also reminds us that the universe is not as it should be, but looks forward to the cosmos’ full redemption.
Fourth, a listening life obviously involves listening to people, a listening that involves far more than just knowing the right techniques. McHugh writes, “I care less about the what of listening and more about the who. Who do I have to become in order to have the capacity to listen?” (136, emphasis original) In listening to others, the invitation is to listen for the heart, which is often expressed subconsciously. In listening for the heart of the other, we allow the person to truly express themselves and be themselves as uncomfortable as that may be for the listener.
In learning to allow the other truly be the other, we grow in our capacity to listen to those who are experiencing deep pain, which is the fifth aspect of a listening life. We do not listen to others in pain to fix their situation (our default); often we are called to “go down into the pit with them, weeping with them, letting our heart break with the heartbroken, waiting together for resurrection” (171). We try best as we are able to feel what the other is feeling, to enter into their pain and their struggle; in other words, we are called to be empathetic listeners.
Finally in order to truly develop as a person who listens, we need to become attuned to our own lives. In many ways this listening is the beginning of all other listening, for we cannot truly “rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn” (Romans 12:15), unless we first learn to listen to our own rejoicing and mourning. This is hard work, for if I am honest with myself, I am often terrified of what will come when and if I stop long enough to listen to my own heart. Those of us called to ministry are often a lot better at providing a listening ear to others than having the courage to slow down from the hectic pace of “doing God’s work” and listen to our own lives.
What if the church became a people known first and foremost as a people who listened?
I wonder what would happen if instead of trying to speak our way back to relevance, we listened deeply. This is challenging and scary. Leaders of the church would have to engage in a lot more discernment, weighing what we hear from others with the truth of our Triune God. But in the end, we as Christians would discover what Adam McHugh discovered: “To live the listening life is to open ourselves to surprise, to our routines being interrupted, and to paths we did not intend to walk but that arrive at places of breathtaking beauty we might have missed” (61).
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Andrew Camp, after working as a professional chef for seven years, is currently the spiritual growth pastoral intern at Mountain Life Church in Park City, UT, where his focus is on pastoring and leading small group leaders. He has a Masters in Spiritual Formation & Soul Care from Talbot Seminary. He and his wife, Claire, have lived in the Park City area for three years.
C. Christopher Smith is the founding editor of The Englewood Review of Books. He is also author of a number of books, including most recently How the Body of Christ Talks: Recovering the Practice of Conversation in the Church (Brazos Press, 2019). Connect with him online at: C-Christopher-Smith.com
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