"He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
[a metaphor, of course]
Jesus said this just after he taught the parable about the sower. What did he mean by this? You can probably assume we all have the "ears" he was talking about, but that not all have the kind that "hear." What are these ears? Are they our mind or our heart? What does it mean to "hear" with this part of ourself?
How do we get our "ears" to hear?
One thing I like to assume is that things like this do not come about by our efforts alone, but without our effort, they likely will not come about. I say likely, as that always leaves open the possibility that God can just make it happen all by himself, but probably won't as a general rule (for good reasons that have something to do with how he has set things up). Like spiritual formation in general, it is likely a process. One that involves us taking in the truth (word), and some mystical interaction of the Holy Spirit that is residing in our hearts, God's grace, and our intentional, well-directed efforts. Legalism and works righteousness are something different, basically mistakes or going about it wrong.
Can it happen without contemplation? I may be wrong, but I don't think it can (if I knew where I was wrong, I would stop it). If this is so, how are we doing with it? Does any of this relate to the soils he wanted us to hear about?
2 comments:
One thing to keep in mind is that those different voices have different origins. The desires mostly come from the body (and sometimes the mind) and God's "voice" comes from the heart.
If the process holds true, we need to take the word in and learn to get to the level of the heart and spend some time there. These two activities can go a long way toward helping us sort out the different voices. That is why we need to camp out in the gospels for a long while, taking in the teachings of Jesus.
These are some of the intentional, well-directed things we can do. Then we let God's grace do its thing.
Have you figured out yet that the bunk bed project is a metaphor for this process of spiritual formation? It is playing out right in front of us. Without an intentional, well-directed effort, the beds will not get made. We need plans, tools, equipment, and lots of effort. However, as necessary as these are, we would not be able to build the beds without grace.
How have you seen grace work so far? How about Walmart giving us $1000. How about the members at Grace giving $2000? How about Mike Roman offering the space and tools? How about God providing a mechanical engineer to help us design the beds efficiently? (Do you know the story? I was passing by Keith, who I did not know real well, on the church stairs at the end of the summer and he spontaneously asks me if we needed any help with the youth. This was before he knew anything about the bunk bed idea. How about this particular family coming up? We could go on. This is all grace.)
All this grace without the intentional, well-directed effort would not get the beds built.
You have an opportunity to see this, because you have intentionally decided to come help and are getting some well-directed help (at least we are trying to provide well-directed help. Spiritually, I mean).
Any of this make any sense, Aaron?
In reference to your first comment, in your contemplative time, remember the verse "Be still and know that I am God."
There are two parts to that command. We need to practice both.
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