"What Do You Hear?"

  The streets were filled with people and noise. The horns honking, people talking loudly, multiple cars, tires squealing around. This is a normal day near Times Square, New York. In the midst of the noise, a Native American and his friend were walking in this area when suddenly, the Native American stopped and said, "I heard a cricket!" His friend was astounded saying, "What? You hear a cricket? How can you hear a cricket in the midst of all this noise?" "No, I'm sure of it!", responded the Native American. Listening carefully, they walked across the street to where some shrubs were growing. The Native American looked into the bushes and sure enough, he located the small cricket and his friend was utterly amazed.

  "That's absolutely incredible," said his friend. "You must have super-human ears!" "No," replied the Native American. "My ears are no different than yours!" The man responded, "That can't be! I could never hear a cricket in this noise." The Native American nodded his head yes and said, "Let me show you something." He reached in his pocket and pulled out a few coins, dropping them on the sidewalk. With all the noise of the street still the same, instantly several came over picking up the coins they heard fall on the concrete. The Native American smiled and said, "It all depends on what you train your ears to listen for and what you listen for is what is important to you."

  Jesus warned his disciples: "So take care how you listen; for whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has shall be taken away from him." (Luke 8:18) How you listen is vital. Some listen to what they want to hear and they establish their whole thought process on what they want to hear. We need to hear the voice of the Lord through His word and nothing else. Some have trained the ears of their heart to hear only the bad or what they think is bad. No matter what is said, they will turn it to how they have trained themselves to listen. Learning to listen to the word of the Lord and listen with the intent of gain will be the difference between gaining spiritual insight or having spiritual gain taken away. And some wonder why they never seem to advance very far spiritually?