The Hardest Discipline: Listening

Let’s talk about one of the hardest things to do in life: listening.

Let’s be totally clear — I still fail at what I’m about to talk about. Yet even so, you need to know both the benefit and the challenge of truly digging in and listening actively.

To listen, we must first care enough about what is being said to stop, sit with the moment, and allow it to penetrate our minds for real consideration. Listening requires interest — an investment that creates space for understanding. It is hard because it must obey our mind rather than our emotions. Listening demands self-mastery for the sake of focused interaction and true retention.

Now let me pause and make something plain. Listening is not the same as hearing. Hearing is a part of listening, but hearing is passive, while listening is an act of will. Hearing is easy — we all do that by nature (unless God has chosen to remove that sense). But hearing alone does not enter into the realm of consideration and recall. Hearing without listening is like writing something down and never hitting save, with no autosave to rescue the work once it’s closed.

Listening is hard because it’s not just about attending to our partners, parents, or even ourselves. It is about living in a constant state of receptivity — to others, to our own hearts, and above all to Him. Listening means attending in the quiet moments when no one sees. Listening when you hear a crash in the night, when fear rises, and still recognizing His steadfast protection.

Listening becomes receptivity.

Receptivity becomes invitation.

Invitation becomes interaction with Him in the midst of life.

And listening is hard.

It confronts us — our assumptions, our stubborn habits, the selves we must let go of. Listening forces us into reliance on Him, because we are powerless to change ourselves apart from His Spirit.

Listening must be coupled with wisdom.

Filtered through Him.

As always this is Dust,

To you,

For you,

From Him,

In me.