The art of meaning

What do you talk about? Take a moment and think about your favorite topics - whatever those might be. Now, see if you can remember the last really good conversation you had about one of those topics. What parts of it excited you, angered you, challenged you, or caused you to think?

In these great conversations something dynamic happens, doesn’t it? My favorites challenge me and introduce at least one moment of mind-expanding wonder. Each person involved is fully engaged - actively listening and contributing.

Sadly, these moments tend to be few. Most conversations are superficial. If we’re honest with ourselves, we keep it that way intentionally (or, at the very least, we do nothing to change it). We’re busy, hurried. We have no time for deep conversation because there is much that needs doing in the now.

I believe, many of us (myself included) have fallen into the lazy habit of saying as little as necessary so we can keep going. Now, let me pause with the caveat that I’m not talking about “work” conversations here - those have their own sets of problems. I’m focusing on the conversations we have with friends, family, acquaintances, and strangers outside of work.

Due to this tendency, we rarely say what we mean. Probably because we have given very little thought to what we’re saying because we’re only kinda listening. My mind tends to be focused on myself on an almost continual basis… you know: where I need to be next, what I need to do next, what point I want to get across, what’s happening to me, how I feel, etc. So, I’m not actively listening to you… I might even think I am, but my brain is so wrapped up in my own world at that moment, that I can’t.

How can I change this? Pray. Pray that God will help me get my head out of my own world and start looking at the one He put me in. Listen. Listen again. Listen some more. I am so out of practice when it comes to listening… pretty sure I’m not alone there. This atrophied state has a tragic side effect - we’re supposed to listen to the Holy Spirit every day - but many of us are not sure how. Maybe listening to people is supposed to be practice.

What does this have to do with the Gospel? For starters, how can we hope to contextualize the Gospel of Jesus Christ if we aren’t paying attention to the desperation hidden in every voice we encounter? How can we speak of the Gospel in a meaningful and fully-engaged way if we aren’t actively listening.

Of all the topics we can possibly consider discussing, the Gospel is the weightiest and most important topic of them all. It should garner our greatest attention, enlist our fullest concentration, and spark the most fulfilling conversations. But, sadly, for most of us, the Gospel is rarely on our lips. Why? We aren’t listening to the cries of quiet desperation with ears that truly hear as the Spirit hears so that we would be moved to be the ministers of reconciliation we’ve been called to be.