To Speak? Or To Listen?

Yesterday I wrote about those who are so willing to speak.  Making so much  noise that it is difficult to silence it.  

Job longed for his unhelpful friend to shut up so he could think.  

⁴ As for you, you whitewash with lies;

   all of you are worthless physicians. 

⁵ If you would only keep silent,

   that would be your wisdom! 

⁶ Hear now my reasoning,

   and listen to the pleadings of my lips..(Job 13)

However his friends didn’t listen to his plea. They just kept repeating platitudes from the past; believing they were being helpful.  And, right/correct by the way.

Isn’t it interesting that people don’t realize that their constant speaking doesn’t allow others to have a voice?  I am thinking their assumption is that what they have to say is so interesting, or so right, that others don’t need to speak.

That kind of assumption is the tug that has yanked my chain for years.

There is a cherished truths in my life.  Silence.  

In silence I become open to listening.  To being willing to hear what needs to be heard. It took me years to find this truth. When we are continually talking we limit our ability to learn something new.  

One of the things I have realized, about myself in these past years, is that I am more interested in asking the questions; then having the answers. 

It is a great place to live. There is a freedom in not having to know it all — or even know a little — or pretend to know. 

This is most especially true when it come to God.  

By asking questions I have reversed the direction of  conversation.   And it feels great.  

I learned this gift from Jesus.  

Though the years, as I read, and reread the Gospels, I noticed that most of the time Jesus answered a question, asked of  him, not with an answer but with another question.

One example I can think of, off the top of my mind, is when the arrogant Lawyer stood up, to test Jesus by, asking: “Teacher, what must I do to inherited eternal life?”  And Jesus asked him two questions back:  “What is written in the law?”  “What do you read there?”(Lk. 10:25-26)

Or when:

Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, ²‘Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands before they eat.’ ³He answered them, ‘And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? (Mt.15)

Or when:

³³The disciples said to him, ‘Where are we to get enough bread in the desert to feed so great a crowd?’ ³⁴Jesus asked them, ‘How many loaves have you?’ (Mt. 15)

What I am thinking is that Jesus continually invites his followers to find their own answers; by reviewing their own behavior, attitudes and habits.  

He lets us wrestle with our own stuff.  Asking us to focus on ourselves when it comes to our egos and pride, our greed and needs.

People of Jesus’ day were so use to the religious leaders telling them. That they became unable to think for themselves.  

Like Job’s three friends. Repeating only what they had been told; rather than figuring things out with their God given brains.

I don't know.  What do your think?