LISTENING INTENTLY
“If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” – Ps. 95:8
There’s a story about an executive who loses her prized watch in her company’s warehouse. Her watch is an old school one, with a minute hand and second hand. She and her employees tear up the warehouse looking for it but can’t find it. Returning home, the executive laments to her family about the failed search. Her daughter, upon hearing how much this watch means to her mom, decides to look for the watch. The next morning, the daughter presents the watch to her mom, and, her mom - surprised - asks her how her daughter found it. Her reply… “I went to the warehouse with no one present but myself. And I passed by each room and paused silently, as to detect the sound of that second hand moving. And listening intently, I noticed and found it.”
This Lent… What are we trying to find? How do we begin to even notice what it is we’re looking for?
Starting today on this first day of this season of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, we begin to hear Jesus’ invitation for daily quiet reflection... to pause silently, to listen intently as to hear and notice that second hand of God moving.
It’s challenging - being torn up with all sorts of busyness (e.g., changing diapers, taking out clients, dropping off kids at practice, taking up work shifts, taking tests and writing papers) in this big warehouse of our lives - we are still invited to ask ourselves, “How am I to make time this Lent to pause, to listen, and to notice God moving in my life?”
Eddie Ngo, SJ