Your Servant Is Listening

A wide porch graced the front of a house we owned a few years ago, and I often sat there watching the sunset. One early Fall evening as I sat wrestling with a decision about an issue at work I saw leaves drifting down. Now focused on the leaves, I watched as one drifted down and landed on a flower that grew in front of the porch. It was NOT a leaf but a Monarch butterfly. Our home was in the migratory path of the Monarchs! I followed the butterflies out into the trees to discover clusters of them covering some of the low-hanging branches, their tiny bodies packed as tightly as they could possibly be.

As I stood and watched, more of them drifted in and settled in clusters. They reminded me of ideas;
ideas that float in from many sources or up from within and gather in clusters. Have you noticed that ideas cluster around our intentions? I was reminded that ideas come from many directions, and no matter the direction, the ultimate source is God. It is our willingness and openness to ideas that attracts the resources we need. It's the energy of invitation that brings those resources to us. The ideas are always there as this is the energy of God everywhere present. Our energy attracts and activates those ideas.

In the Old Testament, Hannah was barren. She prayed for a son and conceived. In her prayer she declared that if she had a boy she would dedicate him to the Lord. That son was born to her and she named him Samuel. Samuel served the priest Eli in the temple. When Samuel was about 12, one night in the early hours before dawn, he heard a voice calling “Samuel, Samuel.” Samuel ran to Eli, but Eli said he did not call. This was repeated 3 times until Eli understood it was the Lord calling. (Read I Sam 3:4-10)

Metaphysically Samuel represents spiritual discernment; both judgement and wisdom. The ability to hear/connect with the still small voice AND to implement what has been heard. He is the wisdom and the judgement that come often as a still, small voice at the heart center.

Like Samuel,we may get the still, small voice, but not hear it. OR when we hear it, we don't understand. Samuel went to Eli 4 times before Eli understood. As we continue in prayer and meditation, and in personal unfoldment we begin to understand:
This is Spirit talking to me! That energy of invitation that Samuel expressed by his service and devotion in the temple and to Eli attracted and activated Spirit's activity.

So how is it we so often either miss the message or misinterpret it?
Thomas Jefferson said, “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

It may be that we have not attuned ourselves in our unfoldment to hear that voice.
Perhaps we have heard the voice and don't recognize it. Or we misinterpret it.
If it is of God:
It shows love; even when the Truth is hard to hear, it is wrapped in love. There is a sense deeply within that this is what one is meant to do, even when it is difficult. The work is lifegiving. It may draw upon our deepest resources to continue the walk, And we know it is the walk to which we are called. We may delay it, resist it, make it extremely difficult for ourselves, yet in our heart of hearts we know we are meant to do this work.
Margaret Lewis wrote a poem about this:
Patience
I reached out from the cloak of confusion
To find you sitting patiently in the silence
You watch as I struggle against the weight of the pain
I kick, I cry, I scream
You sit patiently in the silence

The cloak slowly slips from my shoulders
Revealing an ugliness that shames me
You never recoil from the grotesque
You sit patiently in the silence

The horror fades, the cloak is forever lost
Beauty and wisdom are found beneath
You sit in an easy silence
Allowing me to revel in newfound strength

Unfamiliar gifts, difficult to accept and honor
And you sit silently
Accepting and honoring all that I discover
Teaching me to sit patiently in the silence.

Lewis has put into poetic form the transformation from resistance and self absorption to the energy of willingness and invitation that attracts those ideas; the still small voice.

You may recall from the OT that Elijah did not find God in the storm but in the stillness. God was just as present in the storm as in the stillness, but Elijah could not hear. Listening is a skill that we often don't develop or lose track of. Even when we can listen to Spirit we may not listen to others in our world
In daily life – are we so eager to get our 2 cents in that we fail to hear the other person?

Are we so preoccupied with our own thoughts and beliefs that we are not open to another's ideas? For me I can get so busy and focused I don't hear or see anything but what is on my path. Something as simple as our own routine can get in the way of hearing or discerning the voice of guidance.

Aren't we much the same with each other? We half listen with our heads while
part of our mind is making the grocery list or the “to do” list. We're in a hurry and the story from the other person is too long.

There's a type of listening called active listening. The listener looks at us full in the face; looks in our eyes. We know we have their full attention. They seem to hang on every word.

Then when we finish they may pause a moment and then reflect back, “what I heard you say was . . .” and they give an accurate summary.

The way we listen can actually allow another person to bring forth what is alive in them. This is a way we can all be enriched. Not only by listening to each other, but listening to Spirit, to the still, small voice that speaks in the storm and in the stillness.

Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.