Hi Friends,

Last week we talked about finding every last bit of our ordinary lives in the grand storyline of God.

This week, let’s look at how we help one another do just that.

When Eugene Peterson counseled pastors on how to help their parishioners find themselves in God’s story, he said, “Listening is the first step. It is the precondition for… making the transition from what a person perceives as alienation and experiences as a jumble of unrelated irrelevancies to a sense of coherence and belonging.”

Listening.

He warns pastors against becoming storytellers, where they cast people into their narrative like actors in a play. And if you think about it, that’s far too easy. You can do that in minutes and from a microphone.

But listening? That takes time, tenderness, attention, compassion.

Peterson was writing to pastors in this quote, but I think it’s something we can all take to heart as we journey alongside one another in the Christian life. It’s like a gift we give one another.

This quiet work of engaged listening and insight is a fruit of truly mature love.

It’s a slow work. A quiet one. It doesn’t make headlines, it doesn’t impress.

But it does look a lot like what we see Jesus doing with the majority of His time. We have less verses that show Him preaching or even healing than we do of Him simply sitting at a table having a meal with others.

I’m asking for this Christ-likeness to be born in me. This Holy Spirit work of listening and coming alongside.

And it’s not a one-way pastoral work. It’s a reciprocal, everyone work. We do this for one another. May they know us by our love.

– Anna