President of Company: Gary, no one listens to me.
Gary: Huh?
President: No one listens to me.
Gary: Huh?
President: I talk and no one listens.
Gary: Huh?
President: Oh….
Sometimes I just had to get ol’ Dave out of his usual funk.
But, we all have that feeling. It seems no one is listening.
We have something on our minds to share. We have a problem. Or a joy. We’d love to tell someone else. But no one listens.
Must be what God feels like.
The other leaders of our small group decided that four classes in Ephesians was more than enough. They skipped through chapters 5 and 6 in 40 minutes and proclaimed we had learned!
But I’m still stuck in the letter. I’ve never studied it in detail. It is a marvelous piece of writing.
Paul prays for us to be filled with God. Then he shows us a glimpse of spiritual formation in the life of the church and the family and the household. Then he goes back to the part about filled with God and extends it with the metaphor of spiritual formation as personal body armor in our fight against the evil one who attacks us with insidious thoughts, emotions, and desires.
So, right after he prays for us, he begs us
Be worthy of the calling to which you have been called…
If we have been called by God, then we must listen so that we hear that voice calling us. Otherwise, how do we know about that calling?
At Willow Creek, they teach about the whisper. Sometimes God calls us and it’s not a thunderclap. Like Elijah when God called him to a mountain top to talk to him. He spoke not in the mighty wind or the loud thunder from the lightning. He spoke in a whisper.
To hear a whisper, we had best be still. And attentive. And prepared to respond. Maybe God just whispers, “Go say hi to that person over there.” Or sometimes, “It would be good for you to volunteer for that trip.” Or even, “Quit your job, simplify your life, and follow me.”
Listening is the foundation of spiritual formation.
Tags: attention, Call, spiritual formation
Faith Venture 
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