There have been times – a few times – well, more than a few times – when my wife has been telling me something, and I respond with a “yea” or a “mmhmm.” Suddenly, she’s quiet, and with a sly smile, she looks me dead in the eyes and says, “What did I just say?”
Of course, sheer panic sets in because I realize I’m caught. I wasn’t listening to a word she was saying. I was caught up in my own mind thinking about … who knows what. So, I apologize and ask her to repeat what she has said.
She responds with, “At what part did you stop listening?”
I sigh and contritely mumble, “The whole thing.”
I read that some studies suggest the average person has from 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day. On the high end, that would be approximately one thought every 1.5 seconds during a 24-hour period.
Scientists have measured the amount of data that enter the brain through TV, cell phones, tablets, billboards, bumper stickers, computers and conversation, finding that an average person processes an estimated 74 gigabytes of information a day – which is like reading more than 20,000 words or watching 16 movies.
So to prevent us from being overwhelmed by all we see and hear, our brain has a way of picking and choosing what we focus on. This is referred to as selective attention.
Unfortunately for me, when my wife was talking to me, my brain didn’t make the right selection.
With this constant bombardment of information, if I find it hard to be attentive to the voice of the person sitting right next to us, how can I be attentive to accurately and actively hear God’s voice?
Jesus, the Good Shepherd, tells us how vital it is for us to actively listen to Him. “My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me.”
If we are not actively listening to God, if we do not hear the voice of the Good Shepherd, then how can we really know Him? And if we don’t really know Him, how could we possibly follow Him?
We need to practice actively listening to God’s voice by seeking it out – not only by going to Mass and participating in the sacraments, but by spending time in the Word of the Lord. By reading our Bible and books on spiritual matters, and spending time in prayer giving God our full and undivided attention.
To actively listen to God, we need to try not to impose our own solutions, but instead align our will with His. Someone once told me that there is one prayer that is always guaranteed to be answered immediately by God: “Your will be done.”
Research has found that when we are actively listening to others, we tend to mimic them with words and gestures, just to show that we are following every word. Imagine doing that with our Lord, showing Jesus that we are following his every word.
The most beautiful example of active listening to God is our Blessed Mother. In Mary, God found a good listener. In the Scriptures, we first meet Mary at the Annunciation, where God made an announcement – and Mary listened. She didn’t just hear – she listened. She listened so humbly and intently, so obediently, that “the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us.”
Unfortunately, the noise of our world has become the most prominent sound in our lives. It’s not only the bombardment of information but distorted ideas we hear about God, about religion, about the Church and about morality. If we don’t constantly and actively listen to God’s voice, we risk allowing those other voices to drown out God’s, and in doing so, we endanger ourselves.
Pope Francis said that fundamentally, “listening is a dimension of love,” something I need to remember whenever someone, including my wife, is talking to me, and, more importantly, something we all need to remember as God talks to us every day.
Deacon Dean Johnson serves at Church of the Holy Family, Sewell.
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