{"id":4824,"date":"2016-02-12T13:41:11","date_gmt":"2016-02-12T18:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/?p=2970"},"modified":"2017-01-05T16:41:42","modified_gmt":"2017-01-05T16:41:42","slug":"generous-ears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/generous-ears.html","title":{"rendered":"Generous ears"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"listen\"<\/a>“Who among you will give ear to this,<\/em>
\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>will attend and listen for the time to come?” (Isaiah 42:23 ESV).<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

“Lend me your ears” (Mark Antony in\u00a0Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar).<\/em><\/p>\n

Perhaps one of the greatest gifts we can give another is the gift of listening.<\/p>\n

In a world\u00a0where everyone is busy expressing their opinion on social media and tweeting about their status, do you ever wonder if anyone is really listening? We greet one another with “How are you?” but really don’t want to know. It’s just a pleasantry. We don’t have time to hear. Listening is a luxury we feel we can’t afford.<\/p>\n

Yet many are starving for understanding, yearning for someone to really listen to their voice. Who will give the gift of listening to them?<\/p>\n

There have been many through the years who have given me the gift of listening. And that’s really important to a “talker” like me. Certainly the one, other than Jesus, that has been my most ardent listener has been my wife, Robin. As long as I don’t start the conversation\u00a0too late at night (she’s an early to bed, early to rise type), she will listen attentively as long as I talk. She’s my biggest fan. Always encouraging me when I express self-doubt. Believing in me when I describe my dreams. Her listening speaks louder of her love for me than words ever could.<\/p>\n

That’s because listening is sacrificial. We have to humble ourselves and be silent to truly hear another. This self-imposed silence is not only to our speaking voice, but also to our inner one as well, not thinking of what we’re going to say next, but truly focusing on the other. Listening is a gift of love.<\/p>\n

When was the last time you gave the gift of listening to someone that everyone else tends to shun? When did you last bend down to a child’s level and truly hear their little voice?<\/p>\n

I’m glad that I have a wife that listens to me. Even more than that, I’m glad that we have a God that listens. As the psalmist said, “But truly\u00a0God has listened;\u00a0<\/span>he has attended to the voice of my prayer” (Psalm 66:19 ESV).<\/p>\n

If our great God can lean down and listen to us, shouldn’t we also be willing to have such generous ears?<\/p>\n

<\/h1>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Who among you will give ear to this, \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0will attend and listen for the time to come?” (Isaiah 42:23 ESV). “Lend me your ears” (Mark Antony in\u00a0Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar). Perhaps one of the greatest gifts we can give another is the gift of listening. In a world\u00a0where everyone is busy expressing their opinion on social<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2971,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2061,1,2062],"tags":[2035,2366,2380,2070,2381,2052,2382],"location":[],"class_list":["post-4824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-religion","category-uncategorized","category-weblogs","tag-generosity","tag-generous","tag-gift-of-listening","tag-god","tag-hear","tag-jesus","tag-listening"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4824"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4932,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4824\/revisions\/4932"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/oyb\/2971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4824"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=4824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}