Listening with the Ears of Our Heart
Compassion and Listening
Reflection By Robbin Brent
The greatest thing you can do in this life is to cultivate and exercise compassion. Life is about learning how to flow with your basic goodness. It’s about entering the heart and making it the fount of your being.
- Robert Lax
I get so much pleasure from watching and listening to my grandchildren play. They seem instinctively to listen with the ears of their heart, engaging and responding wholeheartedly to the world around them.
Perhaps they are infused with joy and boundless energy because they don’t spend precious energy overthinking their experience. They simply take it in, reveling in all of God’s creation. Just as children do naturally, how can we learn to better listen with the ears of our heart?
One way we can learn to listen like a child is by showing up in the present moment and paying attention, being curious rather than judgmental. That quality of open, kind presence creates a spaciousness in which we can learn to see and hear with the eyes of our heart, from love, not fear.
Paul also provides some useful tips. “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thess. 5:16-18). When we cultivate joy, a regular prayer practice, and a commitment to notice what we are most grateful for each day, we learn how to move beneath the level of the mind to listen from a place of love, kindness, and deep compassion. From this place we get a richer sense of what it is like to be deeply and truly seen, heard, and loved by God. From this place we infuse our lives, and the lives of others, with the infinite joyful love of God.
Making it Personal: What do you think of the idea that we can better hear what matters most when we listen with the ears of our heart? Do you think Paul’s wise counsel—expressing joy, praying often, and looking for what we are most grateful each day—might support your desire to listen from your heart rather than simply your head? If so, what is one that you are ready to practice regularly this Lent?