Why Listening Well Leads to Life

Welcome to the Lookout Weekly Podcast.

Church at the Lookout is an older color, and our vision is Jesus abiding in his presence, growing in his family and living on his mission to transform the world with all inspiring love.

Visit us online at the lookout.church.

This morning we have a really, really sweet opportunity to hear from someone who has been a powerful voice to many of us in the leadership and also to us as a house.

And I just want to honor quickly.

Chris and Craig, could you stand up for me for a second before I even call you to the stage?

This is Chris and Craig Weston.

They are a beautiful, powerful gift in the body of Christ, you guys.

Chris, we want to honor you.

Chris and her team just spent this last weekend with many of us women at a women's retreat up at Glenerie in Colorado Springs.

And it was powerful, powerful, experiential moments with the Lord and with each other.

And it was absolutely beautiful.

I'm sure we'll share some testimonies coming up soon.

But Chris, thank you.

Thank you for serving us, for loving on us, and pouring into us, and thank your team also for just the beauty of this last weekend.

And we get to hear this morning from Craig Westhoff.

Chris and Craig lead a ministry called Akuo Ministries Missions.

And if you want to learn about their ministries, you can go to akuo.net, a k o-u-o.net, or to learn more about Craig.

Craig is a Franciscan spiritual director.

Powerful.

And a mental and emotional health coach and well-being coach.

And he's just had an awesome ministry of helping people walk not only through spiritual depth, but emotional depth and health.

So we're really glad to have you here.

And he also does a course called Illuminated Soul.

And if you want to learn more about that, go to illuminatedsoul.org and find out all about it because it's really powerful, beautiful stuff.

We love you.

Well, we love you.

Rather formidable stage.

This is nice.

Christine, did you want to come up real quickly?

Yeah, she does.

And then we'll have some fun.

Oh, thank you.

Oh, well, sure.

Just lay it down.

There we go.

Put it.

No, put it over there.

No, I'm kidding.

Just sit.

I just, how are you doing?

There's more people in here.

It's kind of fun.

Had a great time with the women.

Thank you all so much for receiving us.

It really felt like we were just all in his presence together all weekend, and it was a joy.

I felt like I received as much, probably more than we gave.

But during worship, I just had a little picture.

I thought I would toss out to you guys and see if it blessed anyone.

Is that okay?

It feels like it's um not necessarily for the church, but more for some individuals in the room.

And uh it's a bit weird, so bear with me.

But I I saw um a person and the they were standing uh and the the wind started blowing really strong, like uh like almost, you know, like Mary Poppins blow them away kind of strong.

And um, and they went to go anchor themselves with their hands and the ground, but the ground under their feet was rocky and they couldn't uh they couldn't anchor.

It didn't uh and there were there were like roots coming out of their fingers.

Told you to bear with me.

And then but they were trying to anchor themselves.

You know how you like if the wind is blowing so strong, they were like putting their hands and trying to grab hold of the ground, and the the rocky, um, the rocky soil made it difficult.

And at that moment I felt like there was a decision to either um keep trying and let their roots go deeper beyond the rocky surface, the or they could just say, this isn't real, there's no foundation here, there's no nothing solid here, and walk away.

But the wind was still gonna knock them.

So there wasn't there wasn't a good choice in that, you know.

But I felt the invitation of the Lord to just stay and keep grabbing because the root system was gonna go beneath the rocky soil, and right underneath that was this long, deep, rich soil.

And so the the general image, the general idea is that even if you feel like you're standing on rocks and it's not a good foundation, just dig deeper.

Like just dig deeper, because underneath that is a deep, rich soil that will anchor you.

This is a season where people are searching for anchors.

And there's many people in this room that are searching for anchors.

I could feel it.

There's pain, there's trial, there's trouble all over this room.

And I just want to say that you are anchored, you will be anchored.

Just don't give up if you hit rocks first.

Does that make sense?

Sometimes we grab a hold of things that are movable before we dig deeper and find the immovable things that can anchor us.

So just keep digging.

Does that make sense?

I love you.

Jesus, we have you and we need you.

Thank you for the gift of being alive, that you hold all things together.

And since we're here, that means you're holding us together, and you must be up to something.

So thank you for that.

Holy Spirit, I thank you that you're always with us, but I humbly request would you be so kind as to release your life-giving power to each one here individually and also corporately as you know we and the individual need you to be to them.

We love you, Lord.

Amen.

It's Palm Sunday, right?

Okay, just checking.

Just checking.

I don't know, just a real quick thing.

How how much time do I have, Luke?

How much?

45, cool.

Okay.

Um that'll be enough time for my intro.

No, just I just it's just my imagination.

That we sell Palm Sunday, the the celebration of the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.

And I was just thinking, I don't know the time markers between Mary who anointed Jesus with the oil, saturated him, just slathered him, to the point where the scriptures and the gospel say the whole room was filled with the fragrance.

And I just wonder, did he still smell like that while he was on the donkey?

I think yes.

Now, I could be totally wrong, but I just say that to say this.

You are a fragrance of Christ Jesus.

You are an instrument of triumphal entry yourself.

Wherever you go, you carry the fragrance of Christ.

To some it's a fragrance of life, to others, it's a fragrance of death.

But you reek of Jesus.

And I just want to encourage you to continue to cultivate that reality.

In the spirit, you have a fragrance.

And it's called Christ Jesus.

And people are picking up on it all the time.

The invitation is, are you?

What fragrance do you carry in any given moment?

What are you slathering yourself with?

His presence or the presence of something else?

And if I'm honest, for me it's a mix.

That's why I have him and I need him.

I need to, as Peter said, to set apart Christ as Lord in your hearts.

Amen?

So I bless you.

I just bless you.

We are individuals yet members one of another, individually members of one another.

I bless uh the reality that you are a fragrance of Christ Jesus.

And wherever you go, you own the atmosphere with how you smell.

Whether you realize it or not.

And people are picking up on it.

Right on?

So as I like to say, oh, and because of that, I have anointing oil.

Did you smell it, you behind me?

You you didn't smell it yet?

Okay.

Chris said it really reeked.

So it's she said it was really strong.

So I have um I have frankincense and then frankincense and myrrh.

And so I was thinking at the end, Luke, um, we'll have a little prayer time, I think, we'll depending on the Holy Spirit.

But if anything, worst case scenario, I would love whoever wants to, before you walk out, just come up and let's just dab you.

Let's get a little butterfat on you, a little anointing, and just carry that fragrance.

Okay, so whoever will want that, that that'll be fun.

It's interesting, too, on an a side note, frankincense as an essential oil is a unique oil, and that it penetrates the blood barrier of the brain, entering the limbic system, which is the seat of emotions, and it actually calms us down.

I put some right under here every morning and every night.

All right.

So it's good to be with old friends, and it's good to be with old friends for the first time.

I have so many things I want to share with you.

I gotta stay focused.

I have to exercise self-control.

Yeah, I just have to say something real quickly.

Um I just I just want you to know that the person next to you, behind you, in front of you, and you are an original idea of God's.

Thought precedes creation.

My question to you, for you to walk with, is who thought of you that you would be here?

And it wasn't your parents, they had no clue what was going on.

They at best they knew a child, a baby.

But who thought of you that you would be here?

Before I formed you in your mother's womb, I knew you.

Thought precedes creation.

An artist, the reason an artist creates something, the reason Luke and his wife created a song, was it Luke and your wife or Piper?

I can't remember.

Piper, the reason Luke and Piper created a song is because they had a thought and they fell in love with the thought so much they just had to make it.

And Jesus fell in love with the thought of you so much that he just had to make you so that one day he could be face to face with you.

In the beginning was the word, the word was with God, and the word was God.

That word with means face to face.

So picture the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, face to face, and it's so good they all of a sudden think we have to make more faces.

We we can't hoard this.

And so they start to think and ponder.

And all of a sudden they have these things called original thoughts.

God, what are you thinking of?

I call it a Luke.

And he will luke like no other Luke.

Look at him, Luke.

Look at Megan, Megan.

I can't Megan.

She's Meganing.

And God fell in love with the thought behind you.

Yeah, I love your earrings and stuff.

And the lady behind you, what's your name?

Cynthia.

God was there with the Holy Spirit and Jesus, and and it's like Jesus in my imagination.

He says, God, well, you have a smile on your face.

What are you, what are you doing?

He says, I have a thought.

And he says, Well, what is it?

Tell us.

It says, This is a man, I've never had this thought before.

I'm falling in love with the thought so much we just have to make it.

And the Holy Spirit just says, Yeah, let's make something.

Because he's always hovering over the chaos and the void, just waiting for God to say, let there be light.

And Jesus says, Will you please tell us what we're about to make?

What is this wonderful thought of yours?

And he says, Cynthia.

And it resounds through the heavens.

And all of the angels cheer, Yeah.

Cynthia.

And God says, We're gonna make her.

And then there's gonna come a day where we're gonna pack her with our presence.

And she's gonna Cynthia in only the way Cynthia can, in and by my spirit.

I've never seen this original idea of God's until today.

And I bless you, Cynthia.

Amen.

So, from my understanding, a new season for this church, church of the lookout, in short, the lookout, right?

Am I right?

Okay, good.

I thought I was at the wrong church.

I want to make sure.

And I paid attention to Luke's uh video.

You saw the video, maybe the announcement, the description, the vision and mission.

Really incredible.

I noticed some things Luke said, and it resounded what was on my heart.

A few of the things out of the whole of his video was this.

Luke said, an invitation to rise up and see our lives and stories from God's perspective.

To turn our attention to what God is doing in our time, in our day.

And I thought to myself, that's Isaiah 55, 3.

Which reads, Pay attention.

Come to me, listen so your soul may live.

What if there is no looking out without listening?

Looking with your ears.

Throughout Scripture, a primary invitation from God to the Jewish people is here, O Israel.

Listen.

Actually, the word in Hebrew for here is Shema, but it's the number one used Hebrew verb in the Old Testament.

The number one used Hebrew verb in the Old Testament is here.

Deuteronomy 6.4.

Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

And these words that I command to you today shall be on your heart.

So you know Jesus echoed that, right?

In Mark 12, 29, 30.

He puts it this way the most important commandment is this.

Now, oftentimes I would say this what is the most important commandment?

And you would answer, What love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Love others as yourself, your neighbor as yourself.

Right on.

But I'm just wondering, Jesus says this the most important commandment is this.

Listen, O Israel.

The Lord our God is the one and only Lord, and you must love the Lord your God.

And then he goes on with what we know to be the commandments.

I just wonder, this is just me pontificating.

I'm wondering if part of the ultimate commandment is to listen and love.

I cannot love if I'm not listening.

I suck at it.

Excuse me.

What if love and listening hold hands?

It's been said the first duty of love.

The first duty of love is to listen.

So with that said, just have a little fun with me if you don't mind.

When we look at the greatest commandment and the second, which is like it, it's intriguing.

Hear me, we're not rewriting scripture, but it's just intriguing to replace the word love with listen.

It sounds like this.

Listen to God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and listen to your neighbor as yourself.

What do you think about that?

What does that do to you?

It's interesting, King David actually declared one of the reasons he loved the Lord so much.

Have you ever done that?

Declared a reason why you love the Lord so much?

Lord, I love you because.

And how would you fill in the blank?

This is how David fills in the blank.

Psalm 116, 1 and 2.

I love the Lord because he hears me.

He listens to my prayers.

He listens to me every time I call to him.

That's one of the reasons David said, I love the Lord.

He listens to me.

Why that?

Maybe because when we feel listened to, we feel seen, acknowledged, validated, welcomed, we feel recognized.

When we're listened to, can you relate to this?

You even sometimes feel remembered because oftentimes in this crazy world we can feel forgotten?

Can anyone relate to this?

You, the lookout, wants to transform the world with awe-inspiring love.

I heard Luke say that in the video.

You want to transform the world with awe-inspiring love.

What if an absolute prerequisite of that is intentional listening?

To look out, to look out from this merciful and healing vantage point?

What if listening is a merciful and healing vantage point?

As Alice Fryling states, intentional listening is indistinguishable from love.

And love heals.

You want to heal, you want to bring the healing power of Jesus to people?

What if you take the invitation to first and foremost listen?

I was in England recently, uh a couple years ago, and I'm at a pub and I'm observing and contemplating our waiter.

His name is Joey, 19-year-old Joey.

And I'm listening to him by contemplating him.

I'll unpack some of that.

And on my way to the restroom, I bump into Joey.

And I simply say, Joey.

Are you familiar with depression?

And it's eyes start to fill up with tears.

By the way, I'm a survivor of ten years of clinical depression, crippling anxiety.

Cut myself with a knife, unbelievable suicidal ideation.

I was on lithium lamictal lexapro affexer.

So I I know what it looks like.

Set free in 2008, I've been on a healing journey ever since.

Joey, are you familiar with depression?

His eyes start to water and he just shakes his head like a little boy.

And I said, So am I.

I said, I'd love to listen to your story.

And with cursing, he said, No one wants to freaking listen.

And he starts to cry more.

And I said, Joey, I want to listen.

And whether you believe this or not, God wants to listen.

And for two days I met with Joey in England.

And I listened to his story.

And when appropriate, I was able to weave his story within God's story.

Did he give his life to Christ?

I have no idea.

Did he meet the loving power of Jesus?

Yes.

This was a young man who said, who believed no one wants to listen.

And he was saturated in depression and lostness and vulnerability and loneliness and paranoia.

So I can't help but wonder how much pain and suffering might be avoided.

Just think, how much pain and suffering might be avoided if we simply intentionally and non judgmentally practiced listening well to God, to others, to ourselves, to our bodies, to the circumstance, listening to what is, because what is is the great teacher.

Teacher.

Oh.

And of course, under Christ, I mean, I I worked in Christian radio for a while, and we we would always ask a question, you know, we'd say, Hey, what's the most incredible person you ever met?

And everyone would say Jesus.

I'm like, okay, we get it.

We get it, Jesus.

But I'm talking, like, come on.

We're human, let's we're on this planet, let's get real.

So obviously, Jesus is the great teacher.

But then the the the another statement from some of the mystics is this what is is the great teacher.

And the challenge is, if we're honest, I always, and not always, that's a cognitive distortion, but often want to get out of what is because it's unpleasant, and then I want to manufacture a fabricated pleasant what is.

And so when I move out of that what is, which is another word for reality, I'm missing the opportunity to listen to truth and to grow and heal and properly face pain because you and I do not have to be afraid of pain.

Like I did during my 10 years of clinical depression and abused alcohol for three years and cut myself with a knife, rested my head against a rifle numerous times to escape the pain.

What if, friends, everything that shows up in the moment in the form of a person, a place, a circumstance, a feeling, an emotional sensation, a physical sensation, an inexplicable thought?

You know those things?

Otherwise known as ants, automatic negative thoughts.

They just show up at the picnic of your brain and they're just get off my sandwich.

I just want to eat in peace.

Can anybody relate?

You ever have a thought and you and you literally do a physical look?

What if all of that stuff that shows up, what if first and foremost, it just wants to be listened to?

Just like Joey the waiter.

And even in Job, in the message prayer phase, it says, would you please listen?

Would you at least do me the favor of listening?

And what if everything that shows up, first and foremost, just wants you to do that?

Can you feel the spaciousness of that?

You know what that means?

You don't have to dissociate, repress, or run away from anything.

It doesn't mean you're a pacifist doormat and you take it, but it means you're growing.

Oh, this I'm not going to be victimized by what I'm experiencing, but I'm going to be, we're going to be a co-investigator with the Holy Spirit right now.

I'm going to listen to this moment.

Why am I feeling this way?

Why am I thinking this way?

Why am I judging this person that way?

Why am I judging myself this way?

Why do I think I'm a victim all the time?

Yeah?

Listening is God's desire for us because intentional listening precedes intentional living.

Intentional listening precedes intentional living.

Mindful listening precedes mindful living.

Attentive listening precedes attentive listening.

Living.

Thank you, Chris.

You were listening.

We're talking about conscious living.

But if we're honest, I don't want to lump you in.

If I'm honest, most of the time, and to varying degrees, I'm living unconsciously, inattentively, and unmindfully.

And I don't feel shame about that.

That's just part of the human default.

It's part of the human condition.

Most of the time, I'm walking around absolutely unaware.

And I'll be talking with someone and I'll pretend I'm listening, but I'm not.

I'm like, oh yeah.

Oh, really?

Oh, yeah.

And in my head, I'm like, would you please stop talking right now?

It hurts to listen.

It's like, I have other things about, you know, and I'm just self-centered, self-referential, me, me, me, me, me, me, me.

Or I can't wait for you to stop talking so I can start talking.

Just share all my opinions, opinions, opinions.

Scripture says, he who delights in revealing his own opinion is a fool.

Proverb.

He who delights in revealing his own opinion is a fool.

Yeah.

And notice, just side note, that doesn't mean you can't have opinions.

The highlight is he or she who delights in revealing them.

Lately, as I've been monitoring, by the way, I'm not teaching out of mastery.

I'm teaching out of my own need.

And lately, Chris can attest this, we've been on the couch and she asks a question or something comes up, and I start to talk.

And lately, right, Chris, I've been stopping.

I'm like, wait a minute.

I just realized I have no idea what I'm talking about.

And yet somehow I have an opinion.

And it really feels like absolute truth.

And I just I just shut up.

And it's been kind of freeing.

Do you realize you don't have to talk near as much as you think you do?

And yet you get to listen way more than you do, than I do.

I think listening is way more adventurous than speaking.

So this conscious living, that's why you have Isaiah 55.3, the first invitation from God, pay attention.

That's him saying, uh, wake up, Ephesians 5.14, wake up, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and the light of Christ will illuminate you.

That's not a one-time illumination or waking up.

It begins when you gave your life to Christ.

But if we're honest, you are in a continual journey of waking up before you die.

I want to wake up.

Don't you, dude?

With a cool cast?

Don't you?

With the cute sweat.

Don't you want to wake up?

I want to wake up before I die.

I want to see.

I want to listen.

I want to perceive with the mind of Christ, holding the thoughts, feelings, purposes, and perceptions of the very heart of God.

I want to look out on the person in front of me, the situation, what is, the circumstance, and I want to listen deeply so that it can perceive throne room realities in the moment.

And deliver the mind of Christ, his perceptions, his emotions, his response, his wisdom, his understanding, and his power.

Dan Siegel, the first of the three components of well-being and happiness, the first of the three components of well-being and happiness is focused attention.

I'll put it this way.

What has your focus has you.

What has your focus?

What habitually has your focus?

What do you habitually find yourself focusing upon?

What seems to hold your focused attention in your mind and heart?

And what impact does that have on you accepting God's invitation to listen so that your soul may live?

Do you realize God wants you to live?

And so He says, here's how.

And that part come to me.

So that's the invitation to conscious presence.

Face-to-face encounter.

Remember John 1-1?

In the beginning was the word, the word was with God.

That word with face to face.

Come to me.

Another question for you to walk with.

What do you find yourself consciously face to face with in your mind, your imagination, and your focused attention?

What do you constantly find yourself face to face with?

During my 10 years of clinical depression, it was self-hatred.

I was face to face with self-disgust.

Victim mentality, self-pity.

If I'm honest, that's what was going on, in part.

You notice how listening and looking are synonymous?

If you're really looking, if you're really looking out, you're actually listening.

If you're intentionally listening, my friends, you're looking out.

You're looking, you're observing.

Imagine how Jesus mastered this as God made man, a man walking this planet.

Can you imagine what it was like just to physically sit in the presence of Jesus and Him listening to you?

The God of the universe listening to you?

Do you think he was good at that?

I mean, he was so good at it, he could perceive the thoughts and intentions of people's hearts.

What a God.

Wow, I could get emotional.

What a God we serve.

He actually wants to listen.

And then he invites us to do the same.

As St.

Claire of Assisi would say to her sisters, gaze, consider, contemplate Jesus on the cross.

Gaze, consider, contemplate.

Imitate.

When I gaze, when we gaze, consider, and contemplate Christ Jesus, one of the invitations to imitate, I like that the better word is to embody, is this divine skill of listening.

Do you realize even Jesus on the cross was listening to the thieves?

I can't imagine how you could hold a conversation or listen at all, being nailed to a cross.

And somehow he's listened so kind, so selfless, so other-centered, so full of love, he's listening to the thieves to the point where the grateful thief, I call it, he's able to say, This day you're gonna be with me.

Jesus, would you remember me?

Jesus listened.

He listened.

In his pain and suffering, and his shredded flesh and his nails pierced through his bones.

He listened.

And he said, This day you're mine.

You and I are gonna be in paradise.

You listened to me?

Even in my pain?

And then we get to turn around and listen to others in their pain.

Like Joey, the waiter.

Everyone's in pain, friends.

You know that.

That's why we're being the statement, be kind, for everyone is undergoing a great battle.

But listen, Jesus has listened to you in your pain.

And then one of the things we get to do is to mirror and reflect.

And you did that to me.

We get to give mercy because we receive it.

We get to listen now because we've been listened to.

You know what it feels like to be listened to.

You know it.

Don't you?

When you come to Jesus, however that looked in whatever moment, could have even been this morning, and all of a sudden you've you felt something.

He didn't know how to describe it, but maybe it felt like, oh, I'm seen, oh, I feel heard, oh, I feel I have a purpose.

I feel like I'm alive.

Oh, I think what just happened is God listened to me.

You took time.

Thank you for validating me.

Thank you for not being prescriptive.

Thank you for not trying to fix me, but to transform me by listening presence.

Yeah.

You're a good listener, dude, the one with the awesome beard.

I bless your ears, man.

People trust you.

There's like something about you.

You carry this sign like quiet wisdom, but people you look trust, there's this trustworthiness.

You're a listener.

It's almost like this counselor contemplative thing, but you're a safe space, if that makes sense.

So pay attention, come to me, listen, and then finally.

Oh what?

Right there.

Stand up, please.

Chris says, oh, you know, and and to be honest, I have horrible uh memory.

So I'll I'll talk to someone like the first time, and Chris says, Craig, you know him, he's your son.

I'm like, oh.

Okay, got it.

Oh, Lord, help me.

So please forgive me.

I do know you.

I'm aware of your presence.

But it's been a while, dude.

It's been a while.

So who's who who feels my pain?

Right on.

Okay, thank you.

And back in there.

All right, great ministry call.

Come forward.

Oh my gosh.

What a privilege to be human.

Side note, by the way, you're allowed to be fully human.

Okay.

You know why we suffer and have pain and confusion and depression?

You know why?

Some of you will be freed right now when I say this because you're human.

And it doesn't reveal all the pain and suffering and darkness that you experience, the temptation you continue to fall to, whatever it may be.

What if it doesn't reveal your depravity but your capacity?

The reason you suffer so much is because you are alive and you have great capacity.

To the depths we can go of despair and darkness and self-centeredness also reveals the height we can attain to light, love, peace, and hope.

You have great capacity.

So be free.

You're allowed to be fully human.

And now you get to be fully human in Christ and allow Christ to be fully Jesus in and through you.

So pay attention.

Come to me, listen.

Listen so you may live.

That can sound like this.

Listen and live.

That's a great mantra, Craig.

Listen and live.

Luke walking around.

Listen, Megan, listen and live.

Oh, I want, I don't feel like I'm living right now.

Well, are you listening?

Ask yourself when you feel overwhelmed, when you feel like the stuff has hit the fan, when you just don't feel vibrant, pause and ask.

And you'll notice, you won't, you won't even be able to finish the question.

Oh, I I'm I haven't been listening.

To God, to myself, to my body.

Do you realize God's not the only one for you?

Your body is as well.

But we are, we we can learn to listen to our bodies more, friends.

That's a whole other subject.

Listen and live.

Listen so that you may truly live in the moment.

Listen so your soul may revive.

Listen so that your total being may flourish.

Listen so that others may flourish.

I mean, come on, of all the things God could have said to Peter, James, and John on the Mount of Transfiguration.

Moses and Elijah mysteriously present as well.

Jesus glowing full of light.

And what does God say?

This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased.

Listen to him.

Of all the things he could have said, that was first and foremost on the mind of God in this incredible Mount of Transfiguration experience.

He just simply says, Would you just please listen to my son?

And I think he said that because stuff was coming down the pipeline that was going to dash all their expectations.

And so God was preparing them.

I think, please listen.

Because you have no idea what's about to happen.

You think he's establishing his kingdom here and now, like the Romans.

No, no, no.

It's going to look totally different.

Please listen.

Listening is a type of looking with the ears.

When we are listening well, we are intentionally paying attention to whatever or whomever is before us.

As the late French philosopher and mystic Simone Vey stated, attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.

What if you, as an individual, and you all, as the lookout, become known for many things, but also become known for being extravagantly generous with your attention.

With intentional listening to God, to each other, to others, and to what is.

A type of intentional listening that actually would lead others to encounter the awe-inspiring love of Jesus.

I don't know what it is about you, but you listen to me.

And you see this in the news and in the world.

So much conflict.

Why?

Because fundamentally, no one's listening really.

Or I'll put it a little more gracious, there's an invitation to learn to listen well.

And the reason this is challenging is because it's vulnerable, risky, and it takes time.

There's a part of me that doesn't have time to listen to you.

My ego-centric, self-centered, self-referential Craig.

I don't have time.

I need Jesus.

This takes time.

This is hard work with Christ.

Remember, every time you're listening, you're intentionally listening, you're co-listening with the Holy Spirit.

You're never listening alone.

It's not just you in there.

Every time you're listening, when I was listening to Joey, I was also listening to the Holy Spirit.

You all have you've had experiences like that.

And so, because of how challenging it can be, our human default, if we're honest, is a limited, fairly unconscious, overly self-conscious, dualistic, binary approach that leads to labeling instead of listening.

Yeah, that was a mouthful.

But you're listening, thank you.

Say this is challenging because our human default, or because this is challenging and risky and involves vulnerability.

Our human default, and there's no shame in this.

It's because we're human.

Remember three words side message, micro moment.

Learning, practicing, becoming.

That's all you are ever doing.

Learning, practicing, becoming.

The question is: what are you learning?

What are you practicing?

What are you becoming?

So the human default, because of this challenging, risky, vulnerable invitation to intentional listening, the human default is this it's a limited, fairly unconscious, overly self conscious, eyes on me, dualistic, that's either or binary approach that leads to labeling instead of listening.

Labeling the moment, the person, ourselves, the circumstance, even God.

The Pharisees had God labeled.

So does A bunch of other oh, this Jesus isn't He the Son of the Carpenter.

Who is this guy?

They just labeled him.

And the thing is, when we label, oftentimes we limit.

Labeling often limits.

Listening liberates.

Labeling often blindly presumes.

Listening is wide-eyed wonder.

Listening looks for meaning.

I see you, but what does your presence mean right now?

Why are you here?

You, sir, the intense man, you look amazing.

What is your meaning?

What does your presence mean right now?

You're God's original idea, and for some reason I get to behold you right now, which is a way of beholding the glory of God.

You want to see the glory of God, just look at another person.

Dude, you rock.

I feel your meaning, man.

You're a man of intention and resolve, dude.

And I bless you because you have carried heavy loads.

Dude.

You will know what it is, you will know what it feels like.

And you will share it with others.

The light and easy yoke.

And it's light in two ways weight and essence.

It is light.

It's light.

I bless you, dude.

I love being in your presence, man.

So listening looks for meaning.

Remember that.

Listening looks for meaning.

Listening connects in a world that's become anemic with feigned connection.

The Australian Aboriginal wisdom of Dr.

Miriam Rose states: to know me is to breathe with me, to breathe with me is to listen deeply.

To listen deeply is to connect.

And this listening requires a non-dualistic mind.

That's predominantly free from our habitual black and white, either or judgmental thinking.

It's the very mind of Christ.

The fastest way to disable intentional listening, my friends, is judgment.

The fastest way to disable intentional listening is judgment.

Have I judged and therefore shut my ears, disabling listening by prematurely labeling what only longs to be listened to?

What if everything simply longs to be listened to?

Couple of points.

Then we'll crank out the frank.

Frankincense.

Woo.

Couple of points that define a posture of good listening.

Number one, this is from spiritual director Alice Fryling.

The idea is from her, then I unpack it.

Contemplative attitude.

What's that contemplative attitude?

Put it this way: Alan Jones states, we wonder or we objectify.

We contemplate or we exploit.

We wonder or we objectify.

We contemplate or we exploit.

This is childlike faith.

Every person, it doesn't mean you have to have to feel like you love or like the person.

That's okay.

But it's still, can we practice the discipline that I'm going to choose now to wonder about this person and not objectify?

I'm going to choose to contemplate this individual and not exploit.

Because this individual is an original idea of God's.

And the only moment God is in for us is here and now.

True listening is an attempt to hold the meaning of someone.

The meaning of what is.

So that's a contemplative.

Contemplative mind, just open wonder and and awe and intrigue and curiosity.

Cynthia Borgeot actually unpacks the idea of contemplation.

She says, really, contemplation is knowledge impregnated by love.

Or as my wife says, curiosity impregnated by love.

We can have facts and data about people, but then the invitation with the Spirit is what does it look like when you plug love into it?

And now you're not labeling someone, oh, always a Republican, oh Democrat, oh, this, that.

But we seek out meaning.

And we enter a massive, spacious experience.

So we can have that also a humble and non-judgmental spirit.

The non-judgmental spirit.

It's like there's a piece of paper under you.

Could you hand me that, please, Luke?

Are we okay?

It's 1143.

What is this?

Huh?

Paper! You just made a judgment call.

Well done.

Now that's not the judgment call that Jesus tells us not to do in Matthew 7.1.

When he says don't judge, he's saying don't condemn people.

So that's one way we do it.

And as it's been said, our first glance is seldom compassionate.

And that's okay.

We just accept that.

Our first glance is awesome, uh is often judgmental.

Mine is.

But that's okay.

So we just looked at this and said, oh, paper, and then we move on.

That's either or thinking.

Oh, it's paper.

Done.

This is the power of and it's paper and sunshine and rain water.

And the cloud that made the rain.

It's the seed of the tree.

It's the tree itself.

It's dirt.

It's fertilizer.

What if I'm holding nearly everything in the universe and we just called it paper?

That's the power of and.

I'm not talking about the kind of and that says, oh, I'm tired.

And I'm not talking about that.

Talking about, wow, I'm tired.

And meaning tell me more.

I stayed up late.

Oh, and it's curious and it's investigative.

Waterdeep had a song and some of the lyrics.

And is the juice of the joints of the motions of life.

And is the love that is between God and his beautiful wife.

And has two hands and two feet and a long, lovely side.

And rose three days after he was crucified.

See the others, the ones who crucified Christ, judgmental thinking.

He's dead.

But God said, and that's what we get to do in every moment, friends.

And you can do this with yourself.

Sometimes I have in my head, Craig, you worthless bleepity bleep.

I don't resist that anymore, because what we resist when it comes to negative thoughts and emotions just persists.

So now I just say, and I'm a son of God.

And I don't think that's true.

And I'm beloved.

And actually, I'm a beloved son of God, loved beyond measure, and I measure my life in love.

And I'm okay.

And I'm at peace.

And now I'm just worshiping God.

And it begins with you, worthless son.

And it ends with worthwhile son.

All because of and.

Amen.

Alrighty.

Let me finish with this from a guy whose name I can't pronounce.

But he was the editor of Henry Nguyen's material.

In every experience of true listening, especially to God, but also to another person, and I would say to the moment, there is a mysterious moment in which the one who listens steps out from a fortress of self-concern and dwells silently in the truth of the one who speaks.

This is a moment of great risk and great courage, for it ushers us into a different way of being in the world.

Well, we're talking about at the lookout, you guys are really examining a different way of being in this world.

And over time we may even cease to be people who listen and become people who are listening.

People whose very being is shaped by the posture of listening.

Do you want to live?

Do you want others to live?

Pay attention.

Come to God.

Listen.

So you may live.

Amen.

I felt an especially heavy poignancy to listening to our circumstances.

We all know we need to learn how to listen to people better, and that's um, and to ourselves better.

But uh to listen non-judgmentally to our circumstances feel that felt like a direct word for many of us in this room, even uh on a global level, to listen to 2020, to listen to the political crisis that we're in, to listen more deeply.

And I would say for this church, there's um there's just uh something happening, and we had this conversation yesterday, I'm remembering now, but I forgot it until right now.

But I do believe that there's something happening in regards to healing.

But I think um Craig's message is directly connected to that.

Like I'm not gonna preach a whole nother message, I promise.

I'm telling that to myself.

But the when we look at a person um in a in a wheelchair, do we presume that they want um immediate healing?

Are we willing to listen to them?

That the and this person might have cancer, and they're a human that needs to be loved and cared for.

And like we we can um judge people and their needs by just looking at them, especially in our charismatic um circles.

And so the our theology is one thing, but our our love uh embodied in listening is going to be a lot of the spaces where healing happens on more than just a physical level.

And there's something in this house that is going to be unleashed for for mental and physical healing, but also um through love and through the power of love, it will show up in different ways.

Is that okay?

That's good for that.

That's good.

So let's do this.

If your comfort anything I suggest right now, you don't have to do.

But um let's use Isaiah 55, 3 as a blessing over each other to bless our minds.

I believe what has happened this morning is a renewing of the spirits of our minds.

I think one of our my one of my personal definitions of deliverance is when we exchange one of our thoughts for one of God's.

In that moment, you are delivered.

You are saying, and there's other kinds of deliverance that we all have seen too.

But that's one of my favorites.

Because I just want the mind of Christ, don't you?

I want his perspective, his thoughts, his feelings, his emotions, his intentions.

That's all I want.

I want Jesus.

I want to embody him in my flesh.

And so where you are with your friends, uh, we'll do this, and then whoever wants to get a little of the Frank and myrrh, uh, if I could get uh well, I'll I'm getting ahead of myself.

I just invite you to turn to your friends, your spouse, your friends, whoever, and and I'm gonna have you repeat after me, okay?

And I invite you, if you're comfortable, lay hands on each other's heads.

Okay?

We're gonna bless each other.

You realize we have the power to do you realize the world doesn't bless you?

And if no one has anyone, if you if you please look around if you want some company.

If not, just shake your head no.

Ma'am, do you would you want to be you want to be a part of this?

Okay, cool.

Why don't you come up here?

You and I will do that together.

Or you got this guy, the cool dreadlocks, right on, dude.

Now listen, we read in scripture those who bless will be blessed.

I want to I can't stress this enough.

The world can't bless you.

What we are doing now, the world can't do.

And we often go out in the world and we feel beat up.

Why?

Because we feel the occasional curse of it.

And that's okay.

We get to bless each other.

So, Holy Spirit, we thank you for your presence.

We know you're always with us, but we humbly request would you be so kind as to release your life-giving power.

Would you cascade over your your family, over your brothers and sisters right now?

Would you allow us to feel you in our brains, in our minds, the spirit of our minds?

And Holy Spirit, would you please watch over this blessing to perform it in our lives here at the Lookout?

And it's this everyone, just repeat after me.

Pay attention.

Come to me.

Listen, and you will live.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.