An ecumenical mix of thoughts and reflections from a handful of Christian writers have strongly influenced the foundations and practice of my faith and belief.
Words from Parker Palmer, a Quaker, encourage me to live more courageously and authentically. “Our deepest calling is to grow into our own authentic self-hood, whether or not it conforms to some image of who we ought to be,” Mr. Palmer writes. “As we do so, we will not only find the joy that every human being seeks – we will also find our path of authentic service in the world.” That sentiment ended my 20-plus-year career in journalism, fueled my call to ministry, and led to the start of my seminary study.
Henri Nouwen, a Dutch priest and theologian, and his selfless pastoral care among adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, nourishes my compassion and empathy. Of his vocation Mr. Nouwen writes, “What makes us human is not our mind but our heart, not our ability to think but our ability to love.” So also Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta who, when asked why God allows suffering in the world, answered with a bracing question: Why do we allow suffering in the world?
Sarah Young’s writing in the first-person voice of Jesus makes Christ a brotherly presence in my walk of faith. Episcopal priest Barbara Brown Taylor teaches me how to walk confidently in the dark. The poetry of Presbyterian Elder Ann Weems touches my soul and spirit each Advent and Christmas, every Lent and Easter. And I join Roman Catholic spiritual writer Ronald Rolheiser in wrestling with God to find hope and meaning in my daily struggles to be human.
Indeed the spiritual discipline of devotional reading is holy time well spent. And if that’s your regular practice, I applaud and encourage your continued good stewardship of time and self. But I also suggest a caution about your efforts and mine to hear the voice of God and move closer to Christ: Listening to God is a firsthand experience. Secondhand encounter with the Lord – letting others spend with him and benefiting from their experience – is no substitute for firsthand intimacy.
When he asks for your attention, the Lord wants you; God doesn’t want you to send a substitute. God invites you to abide in heaven’s splendor, to feel the touch of the divine hand, to feast at the Lord’s table of abundance. Jesus himself spent regular time with God his Father, carving out precious space in his daily routine for times of blessed nourishment through Scripture and prayer. Through it all, Jesus was training his human heart to listen. And by the Holy Spirit, you and I also may receive the gift of that same listening heart. These are the words of the apostle James –
You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls. (James 1:19-21)
Let me share a couple suggestions for exercising and strengthening the muscles of a listening heart.
First, find a regular place and time – a slot on your schedule in your corner of the world – and claim it for God: morning, afternoon, or evening; under a tree, in the kitchen, on your lunchbreak. Give yourself permission to take as much time as you need. Value quality over length, and allow sufficient time for God’s voice to speak to your wide-open, eagerly listening heart.
Which leads to the second instrument of a listening heart: an open Bible. God speaks to you and me through God’s written Word. Before reading, pray that the Spirit will help you listen and understand. Don’t turn to Scripture in search of affirming your own preconceived ideas; open the pages of your Bible in search of God’s grand desires for you and all Creation. The Bible is not a social-media feed to be scrolled habitually and mindlessly but a precious goldmine to be quarried with care and diligence. Hunt meticulously through Gospel and psalm, narrative and letter, as though you are looking for hidden treasure. Because you are!
But don’t be frantic. Study a little at a time; as with God’s Old Testament manna, enjoy one day’s portion as it comes. Choose depth over quantity. Read until a verse “hits” you then stop and dwell. Jot down that verse on paper – in your journal, if that’s your thing, or on a sticky note affixed to dashboard or desktop. (I know at least one household where Sunday bulletin covers and their Bible verses get taped to kitchen cupboard doors!)
Reflect on your verse several times. And be not discouraged if your reading and listening reap a small harvest. Some days a lesser portion is sufficient. Understanding comes a little at a time, over a lifetime of listening. You will know you have a listening heart when what you read in Scripture is what others see in you. The apostle James continues his letter –
Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror. They look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere – being not hearers who forget but doers who act – they will be blessed in their doing. (James 1:22-25)
It is not enough merely to listen to God speaking – unless, of course, you’re comfortable living with the self-deception that the Lord only cares about your listening and gives not a whit about your obedience to what you hear. God, insists James, does not graciously give God’s adopted children new birth so that you and I can act like impetuous, hotheaded spiritual newborns the rest of our lives. In coming to us in the birth of Christ Jesus, God so also brings God’s Kingdom that we might grow in our obedience to the heart of Kingdom law: Fully loving God, as well as friends, neighbors, and strangers, as much as we love ourselves – or least as much as we ourselves want to be loved!
In near-comical terms, James describes those who merely listen to God’s Word but remain unchanged as people who forget what they look like right after seeing themselves in a mirror. It is, of course, a silly notion – unless something is seriously wrong medically or emotionally with a person. Perhaps compare it, more practically, to someone telling you that you have a piece of spinach caught between your teeth, but you nonetheless walk around all day oblivious to the embarrassing string. You never bother to pluck out the spinach, because you forget it’s even there.
James makes a final point about listening to and obeying God’s Word, and it’s the kind of deception to which many of us fall prey.
Sometimes, you and I think of ourselves as being very religious if we do most of what we hear in the Word. But, says James, if we don’t keep a tight rein on our tongues, we’re just kidding ourselves. James diagnoses a fatal flaw in the notion of “sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me.” A tongue that’s out of control renders worthless our robust exercise of religion.
If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. (James 1:26-27)
James launches a kind of pre-emptive strike against the noxious streams of words that spew from far too many mouths. You’ll never fully appreciate the gift of a listening heart that births new life if your mouth is always open and your ears are ever closed, because you are so angry about this or that cause. The sound of our own voice drowns out the Voice of the Lord in his Word: an important point in our age of “talking heads” who seem all mouth and no ear! In this contentious political climate, Christians with listening hearts need to hear this Word from the Lord – over the din of heated arguments about whatever issue, scandal, or drama that’s in the news. Even when anger is justifiable, such emotions block humble acceptance of the Word that the Holy Spirit plants within.
So revel and delight in this Good News: A listening heart not only saves you, but a listening heart also redeems and sanctifies you. A listening heart fosters action: Personal involvement with the real needs and brokenness of the world – James’s orphans and widows representing the defenseless and marginalized, while simultaneously avoiding the worldly pollution that poisons our souls. Our religious words must be matched with lives that care about both social justice and right living. To think otherwise is to be deceived. Writing to a Denmark filled with “Christian” people who didn’t act very Christian, theologian Soren Kierkegaard tells this little parable –
Once upon a time, there was a land inhabited only by ducks. Every Sunday morning, the ducks got up, washed their faces, put on their Sunday clothes, and waddled off to church. They waddled through the door of their duck church, proceeded down the aisle, and took their familiar places in the pews. The duck minister stepped into the pulpit and opened the duck Bible to the place where it talked about God’s greatest gift to ducks – wings:
“With wings we can fly. With wings we can soar like eagles. With wings we can escape the confines of pens and cages. With wings we can become free. With wings we can become all God meant us to be. So give thanks to God for your wings. And fly!” All the ducks loudly quacked, “Amen.” And then all of the ducks waddled back home.
A listening heart doesn’t waddle. A listening heart turns its attentions skyward and lifts its voice in holiday song –
Said the little lamb to the shepherd boy:
“Do you hear what I hear?
Ringing through the sky, shepherd boy.
Do you hear what I hear?
A song, a song, high above the trees
With a voice as big as the sea,
With a voice as big as the sea.”
With all your heart, listen to the Word that God has spoken. Amen, and amen.
Pastor Grant M. VanderVelden shared this message during worship on the Third Sunday of Advent, November 23, 2025, at First Presbyterian Church in Waukon, Iowa, USA. Scholarship, commentary, and reflection by Doug Bratt, Soren Kierkegaard, Max Lucado, and Stan Mast inform the message, which is part of Pastor Grant’s Advent series, “Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room.”