“Life is a beautiful thing. Pack a bag, make a playlist. Watch the world. Don’t speak. Just listen.”- John Mayer
Life is a beautiful thing, but sometimes we miss it.
This call, to “don’t speak, just listen,” is consistently challenged in our daily lives. We can get caught up in the noise of daily life.
This busyness of our world works to disrupt our spiritual connection. These distractions pull us outward rather than inward.
The inside of things is what you need to see and respond to. Look and listen to each person, each creature, and each thing that crosses your path. Each has a message for us and it’s always the same.
The silent message that the Lord is asking us to hear is “I am God’s good creation. Take good care of me.”
If we listen with our hearts to the inside of each of God’s creature, we’ll always know how to respond to them, and will have the heart to respond with reverence, care, and graciousness.
A rabbi once spoke, “We know that night has ended and day has begun when we look into the face of a stranger next to us and recognize he is our brother.”
God, with gracious hospitality, has welcomed every single one of us inside a circle of love and left no one outside. God is asking us to do the same, to make the habit of hospitality the foundation of our lives.
How different every part of our lives could be if we refused to label anyone as “stranger”.
When we respond with care to the situations in our lives, our heart’s deepest desire, our longing for communion will begin to come true.
Life is a beautiful thing when we listen and respond from within.
