Listening, Part 4

Thank God, I can at last come back to composing these meditations. In the last three meditations I dealt with the subject of listening. Let’s briefly review the ground we have covered to bring us up to date. Recall that the responsibility for listening falls upon you, the listener. You need to become an energetic listener, making an effort to focus your attention upon what you are hearing. God commands you to hearken diligently to Him, which means that you need to make a constant effort to pay attention to what He is saying to you. And do not forget that the quality of your life depends upon whether you listen to God or not. Listening, like anything else, will improve with effort and practice. In order to pay attention, you must exercise the power of concentration. When you are concentrating, your mind is focused on one thing. As you try to pay attention, you need to notice when your mind wanders and call it back. In other words, if you would improve the power of concentration, you must concentrate on concentrating. You also need to practice self-control, restraining your passions, emotions, and impulses. Otherwise, your mind will be so anxious and agitated that you cannot focus your attention on one thing. And do not forget to reduce unnecessary stress as stress will interfere with your ability to concentrate and to retain information. Today I would like to consider some things that might help to improve your power of concentration and thereby your listening skills.

One thing that should help to improve your power of concentration is to cut back on activities that reduce your ability to concentrate. For example, one of the problems that speakers face today is that they address audiences whose power of concentration has been numbed by television. Taking in the information television offers does not require the power of concentration that reading or listening to a speaker requires. Instead of having to focus your attention, television reaches out and grabs it with the technical manipulation of events by means such as background music, loud noises, switching scenes and angles, and other visual effects. My daughter reports that when she allows her son to watch cartoons before beginning his lessons in home school, his ability to concentrate on his lessons is greatly reduced. Spending less time in front of the boob tube and more time in things that exercise your ability to listen with concentration should help.

Here is a quote from an article that I downloaded entitled Grave Cell Phone Dangers Revealed by Will Thomas:

Other studies show that electromagnetic signals from cellular phones reduce the ability to concentrate, calculate and coordinate complicated activities such as driving a car. Startled by $4 billion a year in extra claims among cellphone-wielding drivers, North American insurers did a double-take that found simply juggling cell phones is now causing a 600% increase in accidents over other drivers busy shaving, applying makeup, tuning radios, taming pets, making out, pouring coffee, retrieving dropped cigarettes, talking and gesturing to passengers, or actually steering the vehicle.
Instead of just another dangerous distraction, tests conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy found that using a cell phone severely impairs memory and reaction times. "Hands-free" mobile speaker-phones cause even more crashes because they typically emit 10-times more brainwave interference than handheld units.

Now I cannot vouch for the information in this quote, especially since I do not have a cell phone. But I do think it is worth considering. To those who use cell phones, which are most of you, I would suggest that you observe yourself and see if cell phone usage affects your power of concentration. When you hang up your cell phone, try to focus on one thing and see how well you do.

Another thing that should help you to listen is to learn to listen selectively. This relates back to some of the recommendations I gave you on the subject of memory. Recall that in order to improve your memory, you have to establish priorities whereby you can sort out what needs to be remembered from what does not need to be remembered. Since you cannot remember everything that comes through your mind, you must practice selective forgetting thus freeing up mental energy to remember what you should. The same holds true for listening. Today we are bombarded with so many voices beckoning for our attention. Just consider all that knocks at the door of our minds: there are the people around us with whom we must deal; there is the daily mail delivery with myriads of advertisements, political ads, newspapers, etc.; there is the television with several channels to choose from, especially if you have cable television; there are phones sounding off at home, in the office, and everywhere, if you have a cell phone; there is the internet; there is email; there is music being played everywhere you go; there are iPods; and somewhere in the mix are God, His word, His church, and His minister. In order to be a better listener, you have to simply say “no” to some of these things calling for your attention. Remember that listening requires concentration, which is the ability to focus on one thing. So that means other things have to be tuned out!

We have to realize that we cannot listen to everything, learn everything, know everything, and do everything. We have to settle it in our hearts as to what is most important for us to learn, know, and do. That will help us to discern between what we should listen to and what we should tune out.

Now the Scripture teaches us to practice selective listening. Observe these passages:

Proverbs 19:27 Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge.

1 Timothy 4:7 But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness.

Titus 3:9 But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain.

Since the quality of our life depends upon our listening to God, it stands to reason that our adversary the devil will introduce every distraction he can to keep us from paying attention to what our God has to say. So let us be vigilant and resist this device of the enemy. Let us ever follow the advice of Eli, who taught Samuel to say: “Speak, LORD; for thy servant heareth” (1 Samuel 3:9). Are you listening?