Day 15: Learning to Listen

“It is in solitude that we discover that being is more important than having, and we are worth more than the result of our efforts. In solitude we discover that life is not a possession to be defended, but a gift to be shared.” From: Out of Solitude by Henri J. Nouwen

I am convinced that Solitude is the essence of spiritual clarity and self-discovery. It is in the quiet moments, away from all the voices that call to us that we can begin to differentiate between them, and, by listening carefully, decide which ones to follow. It is interesting to note the word vocation comes from the Latin word vocare, which literally means “to call.” It implies that a person’s life’s work should be in response to this “calling!”

It wasn’t until I began taking high school seniors on a trip expressly designed to have them embrace 4 - 6 hours of solitude that I realized how powerful this type of experience can be for almost everyone who has the courage to travel through their inner wilderness. I didn’t ask the students to listen for anything in particular; I just asked them to listen. I challenged them to begin to differentiate between all the voices calling to them in their daily lives. We discussed that no matter what their religious persuasion (or lack thereof) it would be good to begin to know the influences in their decision-making. The voice of parents, the voice of friends, the voice of our own self-interest, to name a few.

The solitude assignment was born out of discussing the story of Abraham where God told Abraham to take his son, Isaac, and sacrifice him on Mt Moriah. Playing the devil’s advocate, I offered a different ending to the story…

“After Abraham bound Isaac to the alter and took the flint knife to slay his son, instead of God stopping the sacrifice the Israeli Swat Team emerged from behind the rocks and cacti. ‘Drop the knife Abe, you are under arrest for child abuse and attempted murder,’ they say.

“Fast forward to Abe’s trial. What is Abraham’s defense? He would have said, ‘God told me to do it.’”

Now, I was not in any way undermining the value or validity of that particular passage of Scripture (although I have often wondered who paid for Isaac’s counseling?) I was using it to get students to think about how one would distinguish the voice of God over all the voices in our noisy culture. Whether the students believed in a God who was trying to speak to them or not, the exercise of listening seemed to resonate with them.

We discussed that there are several voices that are calling to influence our lives. How do we distinguish between them and decide which ones to follow. In the noisy, busy, high tech world that offers instant everything, how do you learn to listen and decide. The fact that the students were high school seniors in the midst of choosing colleges and making life altering decisions about their sexuality, their drug and alcohol use, and a variety of things that have huge influence on the trajectory of their life only added to the relevance of the assignment.

The premise of the trip was to first experience a day of adventure that included things like rock climbing, rappelling and night hiking, and then to have an entire day of quiet and reflection. They were not given a guidebook on what to think about. They were asked to simply LISTEN to the silence and record in their journals what they heard ... what came to them from the silence.

The results of the exercise were profound!

If we fail to Listen we run the risk of, as the Eagles put it, to “wander around this desert and follow the wrong gods home.”

#Journaling #Solitude #TheJourney #Journeyof1000Days #Education