Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote to those following Jesus with him and others, saying,
“The first service that one owes to others in the fellowship [of apprentices and pilgrims] consists in listening to them. Just as love to God begins in listening to His Word, so the beginning of love for the [faith family] is learning to listen to them.”
The question is, what are we listening for?
Well, as Psalm 139 reveals to us, we are listening to see, using our ears to awaken our eyes to God’s intimacy, action, and graciousness at work in the “them,” our brothers and sisters in Jesus. And when we listen to see, we can join in with what God is already at work doing, willing and working for their good pleasure (Phil. 2:12-13). The problem is, we tend to speak and act more speedily than we do listen, reversing the familial warning “be quick to listen, slow to speak” (Jam. 1:19).
To help us develop the habit of using our ears to aid our eyes, Julian of Norwich came up with a short exercise for our daily interactions: “I look at God. I look at you. I keep looking at God.”
This week, let’s pair a prayer with our eye exercise, employing it freely and often. Whenever we find ourselves in the company of others this week (friends, family, neighbors, spiritual companions), peek and pray: