listen

I have so many ideas floating through my mind, words searching for a way to be expressed. Things like imagination, coming home, imperfections, following – things you may see here in the future.

But today, it’s a friend’s comment about my willingness to listen to the nudges from the Holy Spirit that is at the forefront. As I sat with those words, I realized that I try my best to place that listening at the core of all I do. “Try” being the operative word here, because I know there are times that I definitely hear or feel the nudge and then choose not to act on it. But I am getting better. I am praying more, crocheting more, writing more, all prompted by those nudges. And I realized that taking the time to listen is part of all the other ideas floating around in my mind. So I decided to take that time now to listen to what the Spirit is telling me – about listening.

I write a faith study for my church, based on hymns and current Christian music, which is posted on our website, and recently I heard that this study spoke to someone over 1000 miles away and that he would like to use it for an adult Sunday School class he leads. The concept of the study itself and the 50+ songs I’ve worked on are all based on taking the time to listen. It’s the nudges from the Holy Spirit that got me started, that direct me to which songs to use, which Bible verses to reference, and what questions to ask. I know I couldn’t do this on my own.

The piece I’m currently working on is a perfect example. Looking through the hymnals for which song to work with, I was drawn to a hymn about personal healing. I attributed the pull I felt to the work God and I are doing on my personal healing. So I continued looking, and found one on social justice, which spoke to me, because social justice is an area I’ve been called to grow into. I decided to go with the social justice hymn because it felt like it had a wider appeal with everything going on in the world today, and started looking for Bible verses to connect to where the hymn seemed to be calling me. Two hours later, with no appropriate verses, I stopped. Maybe I wasn’t supposed to use this hymn. Maybe it was my personal feelings rather that the Holy Spirit that made me pick that hymn. I looked at the other hymn again and recognized the universality of the message of the song. So I started looking for Bible verses for that hymn, and within 3 hours I had all I needed and the beginnings of the questions for the various verses. Apparently, I had unintentionally dismissed a nudge. What a difference listening to the Holy Spirit made!

When I listen, things go more smoothly, I feel more motivated to continue the task, I’m less frustrated. Sometimes the listening even requires me to pause a task or call from the Holy Spirit to make sure I’m continuing on the correct path, or if another task needs to take precedence. Recently, I was working on a prayer shawl for a friend as she works through a long-term situation. But in the middle of that I got the nudge to make one for someone else as she prepared for a major change in her life that was about to take place. Part of me hesitated to put the one aside for the other, but I listened. I completed the intervening prayer shawl just in time, and then went back to the first one. Once I completed it, I sent it out. And that friend called me to tell me that the prayer shawl arrived at just the moment she needed it. I explained what had occurred with the other nudge, and my friend told me that if her prayer shawl had arrived a week prior, she would have loved it and used it just the same, but it might not have made such an impact on her. She explained that because I took the time to make the other prayer shawl in the middle, her prayer shawl arrived the day she heard some very hard news and needed that expression of God’s love even more.

I am so grateful to be a part of the work the Holy Spirit is doing. Whether it is writing words to help others see and accept God’s love and grace, or exploring a new social justice ministry, or sharing prayers and concern and care one stitch at a time, I am blessed when I take the time to listen on this journey called life.