Pastor Sid's Journal

Back at Work part 1 - Shut Up and Listen

After time away, it's good to be back at my post. I think that's a good thing. If you finished a vacation and dreaded coming back that might suggest a real problem. One thing that happens when you take a break or vacation is that you end up reflecting on various things. So often I found myself wanting to write my Pastor's Journal and reflect with the congregation (and others) on numerous things. Now that I'm back, there are so many reflections I'm not sure where to begin. So I decided that there will be a number of entries to fulfill these reflections over the next couple of weeks. So today the reflection is on "Listening."

This reflection comes from a comment made a couple days before my vacation. At Sid and Clara Dykstra's 50th wedding anniversary gathering, one of their grandchildren read a part (or all I can't remember) of a letter that Pake (the Friesian word for Grandpa) Dykstra had written. The first thing I was struck by was what an awesome thing to have and treasure. None of my grandparents wrote to me and I found the very act of doing so to be a beautiful gift. If you're a grandparent...write to your grandchildren, if you're a grandchild or child, save those letters or print those emails, they are a treasure.

Now I don't mean to put Sid (Dykstra) on the spot, but a word of wisdom that he wrote to his grandchild was "Keep your mouth shut and listen." (I'm paraphrasing). His word of wisdom is that you'll go a lot further in life if you shut up and listen rather than enjoy the sound of your own voice.

I think that's sound advice, I try tell myself this advice every day...

*sigh*

So often we are a people of immediate reaction and our mouths run before we truly reflect on the entirety of the situation. Many people in conversation are trying to get out their opinion or ideas before the other person has fully spoken. It's true that most of us are formulating what we want to say before the other person is even finished speaking, which begs the question of whether or not we really care what they're saying. And if we don't really care what they're saying do we really care about them at all? And if what we have to say is far more important than what they're saying (tongue firmly planted in my cheek), why do we really need to be in conversation with them at all?

So I guess the equation is: Not listening = selfish

Listening is such a Godly act. It encompasses something of God's nature (compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love - Exodus 34 after he has listened to Moses). God takes the time to see what we don't see and hear what we aren't taking the time to hear. So often we ask why we don't hear God and I think it's likely because so often we're not listening.

Every afternoon on my Quadra Island vacation I went on a hike. No agenda, just try a new trail by myself each day for 2-3 hours. I think it was the most God listening I had done in years. By the end of the week I found myself wondering why I don't make more time in my week for such activity. It was then that I was struck by one word - Sabbath.

Sabbath is the Hebrew word for "rest" and it describes what God did as the final act of creation. I think that another interpretation of the word sabbath might be "listening." After God created everything he "listened," and it was good.

It's kind of funny to think that God is the only one who can speak for six days and when he stops to listen all that is heard is perfection. When most of us speak for six days and then stop to listen, we hear a lot of senseless chatter and very little that is perfect. Perhaps our sabbath today is about a reminder to bring more sabbath, more listening, to each and every day so that God's perfection is better heard.

So today I salute Sid Dykstra and his good advice, "Keep your mouth shut and listen."