“We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.” (Hebrews 2:1 NIV)
Yesterday, my younger granddaughter Hannah had tubes put in her ears. The procedure went well, and she was fine afterward, except that she was ravenously hungry because she had to skip breakfast. Normally, she insists on eating as soon as she wakes up, so fasting until after the surgery was not her idea. The only bad news is that the doctors were unable to treat another problem with her hearing, which is, unfortunately, an inherited condition. She has selective hearing.
Perhaps you suffer from this condition as well. Or more truthfully, the people who try to communicate with you suffer from trying to tell you something you don’t want to hear. Selective hearing is indeed an inherited trait of most people on the planet. We shut out what is unpleasant to hear. Tuning out noise that distracts us from what requires concentration is a good skill, but people often use it to ignore someone, especially when that person is trying to draw us away from our own selfish desires.
Yes, my dear friends, you probably have this condition, too, and there is no medical cure. If you have ever had a parent, grandparent, or teacher say to you, “Pay attention!” you have selective hearing. Small children have to be taught how to listen actively; just like the skill of using your “inside voice,” it takes practice and constant reminders. Teenagers are the ultimate masters of tuning out just when they should be listening—that’s the voice of experience telling you the obvious! It took me only a few years managing a classroom to get in the habit of handing out detailed instructions to forestall hearing, “Mrs. K, you didn’t tell us . . . ,” but the students said it anyway!
Then, as adults, we employ selective hearing with our bosses, neighbors, children, pastors, and—worst of all—our spouses. How many disagreements can you trace to you or your spouse’s not being attentive? When we default to selective hearing, we sin against others, and as Christians, we should feel that twinge of the Holy Spirit reminding us of our sin: “This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in His presence: If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything.” (1 John 3:19-20) He knows EVERYTHING, dear friends.
It’s not surprising that God has this problem of dealing with inattentive listeners, too. Sometimes we just don’t pay attention. His children promise to obey, but we slip, get lazy, ignore what we don’t want to do—any number of excuses. There are numerous verses that warn us about sloppy spirituality that is rooted in tuning God out, just like a rebellious teenager. In the Old Testament, prophets such as Jeremiah warned about the dangers of selective hearing: “For twenty-three years . . . the word of the Lord has come to me and I have spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened. . . . ‘But you did not listen to Me,’ declares the LORD, ‘and you have aroused My anger with what your hands have made, and you brought harm to yourselves.’” (Jer. 25:3, 7) The Israelites then experienced the destruction of their nation, a tragedy that began with failing to listen to God’s Word.
Throughout Biblical times and even into the Middle Ages, only the priests and some noble officials read the Scriptures, usually in a public setting for a gathering of worshipers. It was not common for people to read privately to themselves as we do. So most people primarily experienced God’s Word read out loud, and listening attentively was key to understanding what God intended for them. In Proverbs, Solomon wisely warns of the dangers of failing to listen to God’s Word: “My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.” (Proverbs 2:1-4) Twice, Solomon refers to the nuggets of wisdom in God’s Word as treasure, something to be gained that will make one’s life spiritually richer. How tragic it will be if we miss the treasure God has laid before us!
In the New Testament, Jesus addressed the problem of poor listening skills directly by giving extra emphasis to key statements, from the King James version, “Verily, verily, I say unto you” to a more modern “I tell you the truth” of the New Living Translation (John 5:24a). John’s Gospel uses this expression over 25 times to stress the importance of paying attention to what follows. For example, in one of many dialogues with the Jewish leaders (in the presence of His disciples and bystanders), Jesus makes it clear that this is not the time to tune Him out: “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.” (John 5:24-25) A modern summary might be, “Listen up, folks—your salvation is at stake.”
Think back to the last Easter or Christmas celebration when you experienced a beautiful worship service with many hallelujahs and amens filling your churches. Perhaps because of the excitement of a holiday, we listen more carefully than usual to the Word of God as it is read or sung. Maybe we slow down to appreciate the reading of accounts of the most important events of our faith. But what about now? Have you slipped back into selective hearing, paying attention to only what you want to hear? Are you skipping over the passages that are difficult because you feel the Holy Spirit nudging you to follow God’s will more closely than you have before?
This is no time to be half-heartedly listening to the Lord’s voice. We need to hear what He says more than ever to avoid slipping back into selective hearing. Take time this week and the weeks that follow to listen more carefully to God’s Word. Be one of those sheep who listen to the Good Shepherd’s voice: “He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out. When He has brought out all His own, He goes on ahead of them, and His sheep follow Him because they know His voice.” (John 10:3b-4)
Do you know His voice? As you read the Scriptures, the more you “listen” with your spiritual ears perked up, the more you will be able to distinguish the sound of His voice from the sounds of the many voices of our world that try to lead you away from Him. The writer of Hebrews urges us, “We pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.” (Heb. 2:1) Don’t let the distractions of spring and a fast-approaching summer lure you away from paying attention to what God has for you to hear.
Ask the Holy Spirit to help you make time to listen attentively to Him and His Word every day so that you don’t “drift away.” I’ll be praying for you.
Guest Contributor: Gloria Kuykendall
