Shut Up and Listen

The other night I was at a leadership meeting, and we had a guest speaker.  He talked about a lot things, but one of things that seems to be popping up again and again was the thing he said his grandfather taught him-- Shut up and listen.  You probably had to be there to hear it with the Italian accent. 

Again at our prayer meeting last night, our young adult pastor Brandon, brought up the importance of not just talking to God, but also the importance of taking time to listen.  To be still and quiet.  Much of our thirty minutes of prayer was directed to this.

So as the worship team quietly continued, I found myself opening up my Bible to Jeremiah 33.  Earlier Brandon had referenced Jeremiah 33:3, but as I began to read through the entire chapter, I began to realize some things...

1. Sometimes God has to get us in a place where we have little choice but to be still.  In the first verse, it says "Jeremiah was still confined in the courtyard."  I can be stubborn.  I have good intuition, and I'm often right.  What's worse is that sometimes I know it.  And sometimes I rely so much on this gift of intuition that I forget it's not from me.  It's a gift.  And it's not my source.  It's not the main thing.  And there are times when God has to strip things away, to confine me in situations so that I (hopefully) remember to rely on Him.  To look for Him.  To look TO Him.

2. We still get to make choices, whether to listen or to keep doing our own thing.  I can't imagine that being confined was Jeremiah's first (or second or third...) choice.  He could have stressed out about his situation.  And maybe he did at times.  He could have become angry at God, which is a perfectly human response.  In my personal life, I'm feeling confined right now-- and up until the last few days, I have been spiritually kicking and screaming in protest. 

But sometimes it's what it takes to get us (me) to listen.  To reach a point where I've exhausted all of myself, cried it out, shouted it out.  Like a four year old throwing the epic tantrum, exhausted, and finally ready to calm down and listen to the voice of reason.  In Jeremiah 33, Jeremiah reached that point of listening long before I have.

One of my mentors, Keith Kochner, likes to say "Every moment is a choice, and every choice has prices and benefits."  As I read the rest of the chapter, it wasn't a popular message.  There is a warning of coming destruction, but there is a lot of hope.  And in the meantime, we can get distracted, get upset.  We have choices, including the choice to shut up and listen.