How Can I Cultivate a Listening Life in a Noisy World?

Keeping my voice confident (more confident than I felt!), I greeted my Sunday morning learners with an unexpected request:

“Let’s stand together for our reading of God’s Word this morning.”

They didn’t know I had chosen a longer passage than usual.
They didn’t know I had timed the reading to fill about three minutes.
They didn’t know that I was watching their responses as they stood and listened.

The fidgeting began early on, and it spread through the room like a wave.

With the final sentence, I motioned for everyone to take a seat and then smiled my congratulations:  “You’ll all be happy to know that you made it through three minutes of standing and listening to the Word of God! Do you think you could have stayed with me for six minutes?  How about six hours?”

I opened my Bible once again, this time to the book of Nehemiah, for a long-ago story about a time when the people of God stood on their tired feet for six hours, listening to God’s Word as it was read out loud.

God’s Forgetful People

Nehemiah was no builder, but he had rallied God’s people around a shared vision that included a restored city, a rebuilt protective wall, and a people set apart for God’s glory. Never mind that the men and women who had heard God’s voice when it thundered from Sinai were long gone and forgotten.

By the time Nehemiah’s building project was underway, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy were already one thousand years old. There would be no fiery cloud residing over this rebuilt temple, and the nation of Israel had reached a point in history when the people had all but forgotten to listen for God’s voice through his Word.  

Scholars attribute the authorship of both the Old Testament books of Ezra and Nehemiah to Ezra, the priest and spiritual leader of this band of returned exiles. In Nehemiah 8, he makes a quick cameo appearance, standing on a wooden platform in the town square, reading from the Book of the Law. It’s likely that he had been waiting for this moment from the time his feet hit Palestinian soil:

“For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.” (Ezra 7:10).

All those living in and around Jerusalem converged on the city, but not in the temple. After all, women would not have been welcome there, and only the priests had full access, so in the open square they gathered to hear one man read from an unfurled scroll, likely what we would now call the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy. From daybreak until noon, for at least six hours they stood and listened as one, “men, women, and all that could hear with understanding” (Nehemiah 8:2). 

People of the Book

Don’t make the mistake of picturing a crowd of passive and polite listeners! Their posture demonstrated their mind’s attention and their heart’s affection for the content of God’s Word as they stood (8:5), lifted their hands, bowed their heads, and kneeled down and “worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground (8:6).

Bible commentator Derek Kidner states, “This day was to prove a turning point. From now on, the Jews would be predominantly ‘the people of a book.’ Here the focus, apart from a wooden platform, was a scroll — or more exactly, what was written on it. Its opening brought the people to their feet.” 

They had finally come to a point of wanting to hear from God, and he spoke to them through his written word. Through the record of God’s faithfulness and forgiveness, from the stories of triumph and of failure that were part of their own history, they came to understand who God is and, in the process, to understand themselves. This is the gift God extends to present-day readers, to women and men who will hold themselves before his written word and agree with God that we need the truth of it. 

Do we demonstrate through our choices that we truly believe that we NEED God’s Word? Are we still “the people of the Book?”

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The question is, do we demonstrate through our choices that we truly believe that we NEED God’s Word? Are we still “the people of the Book?” 

Like the nation of Israel, we understand who we are by understanding who God is, and he meets us in the pages of Scripture. Like them, we may be saddened as his word reveals our failures, but also thankful that he does not leave us there! More than entertainment, more than Pinterest-worthy aesthetics, more than the ping of our next email, and even more than good advice to solve all our problems, we need the nourishing truth of scripture–even when (or maybe especially when) the words cut across our own wills and preferences. 

You can begin today to hold yourself before the truth of God’s written word. Make the commitment, do it consistently, and be sure to carve out time every single day.

Make the Commitment

The commitment to knowing God through his word is a decision that is ratified every single day as the believer simply makes it a priority. It may require some reshuffling. You may get behind on your Netflix queue or find that you need to mute some of the more distracting apps on your phone, BUT as you do, you are choosing to prioritize truth over lesser things. 

Carve out time to meet with God every single day. Rest assured that you have his unwavering attention.

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Be Consistent

My youngest son is a music major, and he spends hours playing not-very-interesting combinations of notes on his trumpet because of the long-term gain he expects from a consistent practice regimen. Another son with athletic aspirations submits to best nutrition and fitness practices because he knows this is the path to a thriving record of accomplishment on his bicycle.

Habit, the daily commitment to repetitive action, is crucial in any area where success is desired, particularly in faith formation. What may feel sometimes like “going through the motions” is actually creating a space into which God can speak to us when he is ready. As Frederick Buechner has said, “Beat a path to God long enough and he will meet you on that path bearing the gift of himself.” 

Carve Out the Time

Christians will not be miraculously granted extra hours in our day to accommodate habits of holiness. What we will be granted is a listening life that can take place even in a noisy world as we recognize all the moments in which we can be available to God and his word. I’ve learned that a small daily dose of God’s Word, read with focused attention, is better than a huge gulp, quickly forgotten.

Hanging laundry on the clothesline, waiting for an appointment, standing at the kitchen sink – all of these moments are an opportunity to frame our thoughts around a verse of scripture. As Elisabeth Elliot has said, “There is always time to do the will of God.” (Keep reading to the end, because I’m reviewing the latest EE bio in this post!)

Focused attention on God through moments of prayer and the vital intake of his word helps release us from our position at the center of the universe. Let your heart stand at attention before him as you choose to make time in his word a priority, practice the habit with consistency, and then carve out time to meet with him every single day. Rest assured that you have God’s unwavering attention.

And Now Let’s Talk Books…

Being Elisabeth Elliot by Ellen Vaughn is Volume 2 of the story of Elisabeth’s life, picking up the narrative after her return to the United States as a single parent and celebrated author. This is no tidy story, but rather an account characterized by paradox, a portrayal of a pilgrim who knew that she was not only “beset by nature” but also “cherished by grace”** throughout her long life.

Elliot found her freedom in “submission to the truth,” and, while prevailing disillusionment with purity culture has impacted the way millennials and Gen Zs respond to Elisabeth’s teaching on dating relationships and marriage, her teaching on spiritual disciplines is timeless. She spent her career chiseling a solid theology from the bedrock of God’s character as revealed in the pages of Scripture, a foundation that is undoubtedly the reason she ultimately found grace to face the terror of dementia with a quiet heart.

Vaughn has done her research well, giving the reader access to information from Elisabeth’s private journals and letters. With the motive of telling the truth in love, she has created a portrayal of a real human being, a warm-hearted disciple of Jesus Christ, who did many things right, but also managed to get some things wrong along the way—just like you and me.

“The stories of Christ-followers on this broken planet do not all end with a victorious, triumphal flourish from which readers may draw a tidy syllabus of life lessons,” said Ellen Vaughn of her bio #BeingElisabethElliot via @BHpub

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More Resources on the Life of Elisabeth Elliot

• Since this is volume two of Ellen Vaughn’s account of Elisabeth’s life, I’ll share HERE the link to my review of volume one.
• I also reviewed Lucy S.R. Austen’s fine biography, and you can read my thoughts on that longer account HERE.
• Then, for ongoing information and inspirational content from Elisabeth’s writing and speaking, click HERE for a link to the Elisabeth Elliot Foundation website.

Holding You in the Light,

**This expression is borrowed from Evelyn Underhill.

My Birthday Gift to Newsletter Subscribers!

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I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees. If you should decide to purchase any of the books or products I’ve shared, simply click on the image, and you’ll be taken directly to the seller. If you decide to buy, I’ll receive a few pennies at no extra cost to you.

Many thanks to NetGalley and to B&H Publishing for providing a copy of this book to facilitate my review, which, of course, is offered freely and with honesty.

Photo by Rachel Strong on Unsplash