Listening

Good morning,
I pray the day is finding you well.

I am sitting at a small table in a cabin house in North Carolina; more specifically, I am at the Blue Ridge Assembly at Black Mountain North Carolina. Blue Ridge Assembly is a YMCA retreat center built in 1906, and is quite a beautiful place. I am here with a number of other YMCA people learning how others have put on CLC's, CLC stands for Christian Leadership Conference.

I have been listening to people.

I have been listening to people talk about the difficulties they have been having getting people to come to CLC's. As I listened, it appears to be that people's lives have become to busy. They have so many things on their plate that they have to make a choice, but that is nothing new to us, life is busy, and we do have to decide where we want to spend our time; it comes down to priorities.

I have been listening to people.

I have been listening to people talk about Post-Christian culture / Pre-Christian Culture; those that have either decided that Christianity is irrelevant, for whatever reason; be it that they find the message not compelling, or have been hurt by the words spoken by Christians; or they have not heard of Christ at all.

I have been listening to people.

I like to listen to people, there is so much I can learn from listening.

I am reminded of something my father said. He said, "If your mouth is open you aren't learning anything." I often wonder what I missed learning about merely because I had something to say.

The Bible verse that the YMCA uses is John 17:21.
that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. (John 17:21 NKJV)

The first thing that I notice when I look at this verse is that it starts in the middle of a sentence; this causes me to wonder what the other part of the sentence says. It is like I have not heard all of what Christ was saying, as if I was not doing a good job listening. This wonderment causes me to look at what was said before, this is what it says.

“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; (John 17:20 NKJV)

Jesus had just finished praying for His Disciples (I do not pray for these alone), and began praying for the rest of the world (but also for those who will believe in Me through their word).

"Through their word" haunts me.

If people have heard words from those that claim His name and because of these words have turned away, that is a very sad thing. I wonder what words people are using?

I have been listening to people.

I wonder what it would look like if we actually listened to people before we used words.

I wonder if more people would come to CLC's if we listened to people before we said something.

I wonder.

Blessings,