All We Need Is Love...and a Little Listening

By Marilyn Travis

In times of uncertainty we need more love than ever! Now is a good time to talk or correspond with one another. Though we are not able to be physically present with many of our friends and family members, we are still able to communicate with them. Mitch and I were touched by two fellow members of our church who checked in on us via social media and email Sunday. A group of dear friends, my old teaching team now retired, have decided to use a live connection to play some games and enjoy some fellowship. We have a unique opportunity to comfort one another, listen to concerns and fears and offer comfort through God’s word and His love.

Love is a big deal. The concordance in the back of my Bible has over 600 entries for the word “love.” 1 John 4:7-12 says:

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent His only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.

This type of love is not passive. It requires action. Jesus tells us, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and prophets hang on these two commandments.”  (Matthew 22:37-40)

Part of this active love involves listening. At the transfiguration described in Mark 9:7 God says of Jesus, “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to Him!” If we do listen to Jesus, we learn we also need to listen to each other. Henri Nouwen describes such love this way:

From experience, you know that those who care for you become present to you. When they listen, they listen to you. When they speak, you know they speak to you. And when they ask questions, you know it is for your sake and not their own. Their presence is a healing presence because they accept you on your terms, and they encourage you to take your own life seriously.

In the same way, God invites us to grow in the quality of our presence to others so that they might experience his love through us. (Day by Day, Peter Scazzero)

David Augsburger writes, “Being heard is so close to being loved that for the average person they are almost indistinguishable.”

If we listen to God, and act upon his word, He will teach us to listen. He will teach us to listen to Him and to each other. He, in turn, will listen to us to us as we pray.

We are a community, a family of believers. We already love one another, and we enjoy each other’s company. We are physically separated from one another, but we can stay emotionally close. I encourage each of us to connect with several people this week. Let’s listen, and spread a little love.

I’d like to close with a prayer from Day by Day by Peter Scazzero:

Father, we are so easily distracted and preoccupied…, but we each long to be the kind of person who genuinely listens and is fully present. We ask that you would change us so that we can be a powerful presence for others. In Jesus’ name, amen.