Lynne Baab

Praying about the flow of time: “Listen to Jesus”

Lynne Baab • Tuesday August 6 2024

Who doesn’t love a lighthouse? Such a powerful symbol of so many significant themes: safety and security, a light in the darkness, a warning of dangerous rocks, and a guide to find our way home. August 7 is National Lighthouse Day. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to use one of my husband Dave’s many lighthouse paintings. I wanted to write a whole post on the power of the image of Christ as the lighthouse for our lives.

But I wanted to write about the Feast of the Transfiguration, August 6, even more. When I started planning this new series on the flow of time, I didn’t realize that some weeks would have two things I wanted to write about. As I’ve been considering the flow of seasons, I’ve been looking at lists of Christian feast days and national and international days celebrating various obscure things. We have already missed an amazing array of holidays on August 1—National Spider-Man Day, Swiss National Day, and Homemade Pie Day (yum)! I'm not mentioning several other national or international days that occur on August 1. Or 2. Or 3. I had no idea!

Because I’m interested in listening and how we do it, the Transfiguration story is profoundly meaningful to me. The story appears in the three Synoptic Gospels (Mark 9:2–13; Matthew 17:1–13; Luke 9:28–36). The wording of the voice of God varies slightly in each version of the story. All three of them say something like: “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” (Mark 9:7).

I remember that, as a child, my mother would tell me to listen to her. She didn’t mean to take in her words and simply recognize what they meant. She meant to pay attention and obey. The Greek word used for “listen” in all three versions of the story, akouete, means to listen in the deepest sense. An online dictionary for the Greek word gives this translation: to hear, pay attention, understand, obey.

The word “obey” is a bit off-putting. I often find it easier to relate to following Jesus or walking with Jesus. We follow him into the world, where he meets people with needs. We walk beside him, meeting the people he cares about. This idea of following Jesus or walking with him explains why I like the word “pilgrim” to describe what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.

To listen in an attentive way that includes following, we have to want to. I know a couple of people who are not followers of Jesus, but they admire him. Admiring Jesus is great, but God wants us to listen to Jesus, pay attention to what he says, and work toward understanding him so we can try to follow him. Holy Spirit, turn our hearts toward Jesus so that we want to hear, pay attention, understand, and walk with you into the world.

In order to listen more attentively to Jesus, we have to pay attention to the various ways we block listening. We block Jesus in many of the same ways we avoid listening to other people. Here’s an example.

Imagine you’re at a holiday dinner with the extended family. The conversation flowed reasonably well during the meal. You’re all relaxing after dessert, and one family member begins to talk about the hurts they experienced during childhood. You’re tired of hearing them talk that way, and you know others are. In fact, as soon as your relative starts down the conversational path of describing past hurts, another person at the table jumps up and says, “Let’s get those dishes done.”

Peter has done pretty much the same thing at the Transfiguration. He is acutely uncomfortable when he sees Jesus lit from within, talking with Moses and Elijah. He tries to turn his discomfort into action. Peter says to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah” (Mark 9:5). For some of us, when we feel discomfort, our knee-jerk response is to get busy. “Let’s do something! I can't sit still and listen to this!”

Others of us have different immediate responses, including advice-giving, telling our own story, changing the subject, making a judgment, or denying that there’s a problem. Communication scholars say that these various avoidance techniques come from the anxiety inside us. We are afraid we might hear something uncomfortable from people. Similarly, we may not want to listen to Jesus because we’re afraid we’ll hear something uncomfortable.

When we pray for help in listening to Jesus, we might want to say:

• God, please speak to me, and I will do my best to follow.
• Holy Spirit, please help me listen to Jesus more attentively.
• Jesus, I want to follow you, but I can’t hear your voice clearly.
• God, here's the best I can do is this prayer: I want to want to hear you and follow.
• I’m scared to hear your voice, Jesus. I don’t know what you’ll ask.

Even though I chose not to write much about lighthouses in this post, maybe the idea of a lighthouse has something to contribute here. Jesus, be my lighthouse. Shine in the darkness. Help me hear your voice so I can avoid rocks and guide my ship to where you want me to be.

Here’s an relevant prayer from St. Richard of Chichester (1197-1253), used in the musical Godspell:

Most merciful Redeemer, Friend, and Brother, may we know you more clearly, love you more dearly, and follow you more nearly, day by day. Amen.

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Next week: why “ordinary time” speaks to me. Illustration by Dave Baab: Lahaina lighthouse, Maui, Hawaii, which survived the 2023 fire but the building next to it and most of the trees Dave painted were leveled.

Some favorite blog posts and articles about listening:

• Holy Listening
• To be a neighbor must include listening
• Hospitality and listening

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Lynne M. Baab, Ph.D., is an author and adjunct professor. She has written numerous books, Bible study guides, and articles for magazines and journals. Lynne is passionate about prayer and other ways to draw near to God, and her writing conveys encouragement for readers to be their authentic selves before God. She encourages experimentation and lightness in Christians spiritual practices. Read more »

Lynne is pleased to announce the release of her two 2024 books, both of them illustrated with her talented husband Dave's watercolors. She is thrilled at how good the watercolors look in the printed books, and in the kindle versions, if read on a phone, the watercolors glow. Friendship, Listening and Empathy: A Prayer Guide guides the reader into new ways to pray about the topics in the title. Draw Near: A Lenten Devotional guides the reader to a psalm for each day of Lent and offers insightful reflection/discussion questions that can be used alone or in groups. 

Another recent book is Two Hands: Grief and Gratitude in the Christian  Life, available in paperback, audiobook, and for kindle. Lynne's 2018 book is Nurturing Hope: Christian Pastoral Care for the Twenty-First Century, and her most popular book is Sabbath-Keeping: Finding Freedom in the Rhythms of Rest (now available as an audiobook as well as paperback and kindle). You can see her many other book titles here, along with her Bible study guides.

You can listen to Lynne talk about these topics: empathy, bringing spiritual practices to life. Sabbath keeping for recent grads., and Sabbath keeping for families and children.

Lynne was interviewed for the podcast "As the Crow Flies". The first episode focuses on why listening matters and the second one on listening skills. 

Here are two talks Lynne gave on listening (recorded in audio form on YouTube): Listening for Mission and Ministry and Why Listening Matters for Mission and Ministry.

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"Dear Dr. Baab, You changed my life. It is only through God’s gift of the sabbath that I feel in my heart and soul that God loves me apart from anything I do."
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