A Prayer for Ears

(a prayer for listening)

In many ways, I think the last few years have given everyone a new set of ears.

We have become a people constantly looking for ways to correct, to cancel, to wave red flags. And while, at the root of it, I think we’re looking to call out behavior that has gone unchecked for too long—to right wrongs and make the world a better place—in some spaces this well meaning practice has gone too far, and people have taken on the posture of defensive listening rather than corrective curiosity.

People listen as if they are on game shows with their hands above bright red buttons waiting to be buzzed. Or like we’ve all been given individual hammers to break the glass of a fire alarm and the temptation to smash is being heightened with each passing second.

In doing so, people are not often listening for intention, for nuance, for humanness. They are looking for buzzwords, for misunderstanding, and for loopholes. For ways in which to reduce the multitudes of a person down to one poorly phrased comment, or naïve opinion, or well-meaning word that can be flipped upside down.

So today I want to pray for open ears. For more compassionate ears.

I want to pray for ears that listen to the Whole Thing™—whatever that thing is. Ears without agenda, without pride, ears willing to be humbled. Ears that hear the hurting in the world, yes, ears that are brave enough to hear the wrongs that need righting, yes, but ears that don’t solely hunt. Ears that listen for opportunities for new perspective, ears that listen for potential, that can redirect—and can do so without fanfare.

I pray for more patience, more willingness to ask, “what do you mean by that?”

I pray for more context, more determination to dig deeper into someone’s opinions, values, and beliefs, rather than a desperation to blow the whistle on things that could have been solved with an honest conversation.

The world is full of technological advancements that are usually aimed at making life easier and the world a better place. I pray that we might give our ears the same opportunities to develop and grow—to pick up on things they didn’t hear before. To better hear emotion, and the tells of misunderstanding. To always start with a belief in good intent rather than a cynical funnel for what doesn’t sound “exactly correct.”

Proverbs 2:2 says, “Tune your ears to wisdom, and concentrate on understanding.”

Can we do that?

I pray we’d find a way.

Amen.