Whoever has ears, let him hear

I remember when I was younger, I used to dread the question, "so what has God been teaching you lately?"  I grew up in the church, and all of my friends were Christians, too, so it was a very natural question to come up in my normal, day-to-day conversation.

But I hated it.  I hate it because I knew that I should have an easy answer to it - but so often, I didn't.  I should have been able to tell what God was teaching me - but far too frequently, I didn't have a clue.  And so that question was always associated in my mind with a stricken conscience and feelings of guilt or inadequacy.

But these days, I don't dread that question anymore.  Perhaps it's because I've finally learned to listen.  All of those years I read the words of the Bible, I heard the sermons of the pastors....but I didn't really understand.  They weren't sinking in like they were supposed to.  But nowadays, it all seems to make so much more sense.  And I don't dread that question anymore because I actually AM learning things from the Lord.  I can answer it now.  It's amazing what can happen when God opens your eyes.

Mark 4:9-12

 ⁹ Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”
 ¹⁰ When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. ¹¹ He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables ¹² so that, “‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving,  and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’”