Faith Venture

This weekend, I will be guiding our group into discussion of the Spiritual Disciplines of Confession and Worship. Before reading the chapters (Richard Foster, “Celebration of Discipline”), one member expressed surprise that Foster calls Confession a “corporate” discipline, rather than a “private” one.

He may have been thinking, as I was, that corporate meant getting up in a church service and “spilling your guts” as the old movies said. Actually, Foster discusses the benefits of confessing to another person who can immediately pray for you and offer God’s forgiveness.

I was thinking this morning about the person hearing the confession. Ernest Hemingway said, “When you listen, listen completely. Most people don’t listen.” Foster discusses the need to remain quiet. The hearer must quell the urge to jump in and offer advice right away. You cannot listen and talk at the same time.

True listening means placing your focus and attention on the other person. Your attitude is one of prayerful attentiveness. Look at the person. Depending upon the accent of the person I’m listening to, I usually focus on one eye, but sometimes I need to see the mouth move to pick up the words correctly. But the person must see you looking at them–not at the walls or other people (if you are, say, at a restaurant).

This takes practice. Maybe years of practice.

One thing Foster doesn’t discuss that might be useful today is listening in an email conversation. I listen. I try to understand. But often, I just can’t pick up the right tone of the conversation. When it becomes important, move the conversation to an audible one.

I don’t hear my Catholic friends discuss going to (the rite of) Confession any more. Is that ritual falling into disuse? But Protestants often fall into an attitude that confession is private–just you and me, God. Many times, though, discussing with a trusted person is necessary to remove the burden, especially if that person truly listens and then prays with you.

Sometimes I think we Christians spend way too much time on talking as evangelism and way too little time listening.

This entry was posted on February 24, 2012 at 7:10 am and is filed under Disciplines, Listening. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.