Paying attention has always been a bit of an issue for me. I easily get “lost with the fairies…” trail off into my little world that is sometimes more real than the one I live in. (Creative much?)
I’ve missed appointments, turned up to meetings two weeks early, misplaced important details, lost things, forgotten things… yep. My teachers were right. I STILL need to pay more attention.
Attention to what, though?
In chapter 4 of his book, Mark recorded that Jesus said:
“Be diligent to understand the meaning behind everything you hear, for as you do, more understanding will be given to you. And according to the depth of your longing to understand, much more will be added to you. For those who listen with open hearts will receive more revelation. But those who don’t listen with open hearts will lose what little they think they have!” (Mark 4:24-25 TPT).
When you’re in a lecture, or you’re learning something new, there are a few different ways you can listen and take in the information. You can listen to, record and or memorize, storing the information in your brain so you can pull it out when you need it. This kind of listening is often buffeted with ambition and plans for success – it's dictated by where the hearer wants to go and how they want to use the information to get them there. What you want is the destination and the information, the tracks to get you there.
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It’s a kind of ‘paying attention’ that trusts, has faith, and longs to understand beyond your current capabilities, situation, and wisdom.
“Those who listen with open hearts will receive more revelation…” They will uncover truths and graces and ideas and wonders beyond their wildest imaginations.
“But those who don’t listen with open hearts will lose what little they think they have…” They will grow smaller and smaller as their agenda for listening is to further their own agenda and space in the world.
I suppose it's not so much “what” you hear, but “how” you listen.
“Be diligent to understand the meaning BEHIND everything you hear.”
There is always more going on than you can see and hear on the surface of things. You can listen to someone's anger and only see the trouble they’re in, or you can listen into the space behind their anger and find out why it’s there in the first place.
Pay attention to what is happening around you, but more than that, pay attention to what is going on behind it all.
Two people can sit under the same starry sky, observe the same spectacular sunrise, eat the same delicious feast, and experience two different things. So many things make up the differences between the two, but largely it's because what is going on in the person determines where their attention is placed, and how they interpret what they see and hear.
The world is a but a colossal classroom… are you paying attention?
Written by Liz Milani
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