BLESS Every Home: Listen to Their Story
BY PASTOR JADY GRIFFIN
ALL OF US WANT TO BE HEARD
Listen to Their Story is the second step of our B.L.E.S.S model, a practical path to sharing the gospel of Jesus with our neighbors.
LOST SHOES
When my wife and I were engaged, we attended a retreat designed to help new couples navigate what are statistically the most difficult aspects of marriage: communication, conflict, finances, and sex. And at that time I believed I was a world-class listener.
One day we played a game where the women all put their shoes in the middle of the room while the men were blindfolded. The goal was to follow the voices of our fiancés to find their shoes and put them on their feet. Sounds easy enough, right?
At “3, 2, 1… go!” it was chaos. Shoes were flying, and people were screaming, but Liz’s voice was absent. I didn’t hear a single direction. It was like she had left the room. I frustratedly came up with a defensive strategy on my own and just started throwing shoes around. When I finally heard my name, it wasn't my wife but the retreat leader saying, “Jady, the game is over.”
We came in last place.
I quickly realized I was actually a world-class talker and a terrible listener. I was so fixated on myself that I couldn’t hear what was most valuable.
God is giving us opportunities every day through the things being said all around us.
Are we missing them simply because we are not listening?
HEALED AND HEARD
There is a story I love in Mark 5:21-34 known as “The Woman with the Issue of Blood:”
When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet.
He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” So Jesus went with him. A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse.
When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”
“You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’”
But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
Jesus knew that this woman needed not just to be healed, but to be heard. Jesus was so engaged with what was happening around Him, that it says He felt power leave Him. Despite the swarm of people, He was so present that He felt it when she touched Him.
Jesus was on His way to pray for a little girl on her deathbed. He had just looked into the eyes of her desperate father. You would think Jesus would have been focused solely on where He was heading and what He would do when He got there. Yet, in the middle of a chaotic crowd pressing in on Him and His need to be somewhere, Jesus still listened to what was happening around Him.
“Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” John 5:19
Jesus lived with His ears to heaven, listening for the direction of the Father and opening His heart to those around Him. He recognized that her problems were deeper than what they seemed. Sometimes we assume people’s need, but so often, what’s under the surface is where they really need freedom.
God is moving in the lives of the people you are praying for. You might not see it yet, but He is filling our days with opportunities to hear the stories of people around us if we simply stop to listen.
TAKE A STEP
God is inviting you to listen to the stories of others. But maybe the lies you believe, the sin you’re lost in, or the pain you’re experiencing makes you feel like you can’t hear anything else.
Take a moment today to stop and sit still before God. Ask Him to reveal one thing that keeps your ears from being open. After God reveals that area to you, ask him to show you one step you can take today to address it. Use the space below to write it down as a reminder.
When we can hear Him clearly, we can truly listen to those He has put around us.
The BLESS EVERY HOME App
Click below to download the BLESS EVERY HOME app. This tool allows you to adopt homes in your neighborhood to pray for and sends you daily reminders to help you stay focused on missional living.
