We are constantly bombarded with sounds. Either the radio announcer is talking to us, or the voice through the phone receiver is. And if we are able to escape momentarily and grab a moment of silence, we confront the most deafening noise of all: our internal voice. Yes, our days are filled with people speaking to us, but for most, it is our internal speaking that fills every crevice and crack of our conscious moments. When we see a neighbor, our opinions speak a piece about her. As we talk with a coworker, beyond our words, our thoughts speak volumes. Even as we embrace a loved one, our hearts can be quite chatty with criticism or distractions. And most devastatingly, our times of prayer are loud with our voice but soft in the voice of God.

These are all connected. In each we demonstrate our ability to listen: our ability to become quiet, open ourselves to another, and focus upon their concern. True listening only occurs when we disentangle ourselves from our internal morass of self-centeredness. Only as we internally soften the focus upon ourselves and became captivated in concern for another do we begin to listen. It is only via true listening that we will ever consistently hear the people that populate our world. Yes, on occasion, we can be jolted out of the dominance of our internal voice by the tragedy another has suffered or by the lightening bolt of God's conviction. But on a daily basis, on a minute-by-minute basis, unless we take on an attitude of true listening our world will resound with our own internal voice.

The lack of true listening is the cause of much of our spiritual weakness for if we place the mouth before the ear, our prayers will be dominated by our mouths and not our ears. This results in prayers full of our requests and our desires and lacking in God's requests and God's desires. We end up presenting our questions for God, but do not wait to hear His questions of us. Let us learn from Jacob that wrestling with God in prayer means that God wrestles back. This powerful thought should make us tremble. We ought not bend our knees blithely, for God might bend us as we kneel before Him.

Respect for God's power is not the only reason to learn to truly listen to Him. We are also desperate to hear His Word of love. God's one Word of love whispered in the soul is a bounteous feast. Listen and feast.