Are you listening???

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me. John 10:27

Hearing and listening are not the same. We hear sounds all the time, unless we are deaf. Everything from the sound of a siren to the slam of a door to a conversation in another room. Sometimes we hear the wind or the rain. At times it is the sound of birds. If you are affected with an inner disorder such as tinnitus then you are constantly hearing a ringing sound or buzzing noise inside your head. But hearing is not listening. All the sounds I have mentioned can fill the background of our day. We may not even be conscious of them they are so much a part of our daily routine.

Listening on the other hand requires us to pay attention. We have to hear the sound, take it in, process it and then act on it. So a conversation in another room is nothing, but if you are home alone and suddenly hear voices in another room of the house you begin to listen and listening can create all sorts of reactions. The sound of wind and rain may simply be part of the background, but if you start to listen and you note that the wind is fairly strong or that the rain is coming down quite hard then suddenly it affects your decisions and choices.

So it is with God. When Jesus talks about his sheep 'listening' to him and following him, John, the gospel writer, is asking us, the readers, a question. Quite simply...are you listening to Jesus?

It's a good question...am I listening to him or am I simply hearing what he has to say and going my own way???