How is your hearing? If you are like me, it isn’t so good. After listening to loud rock music as a teenager and riding a motorcycle for more years than I can count, my hearing seems to be getting worse every year.

But there is another kind of listening that isn’t done with your ears. I find that I can actually listen with my eyes as much as my ears. Sounds crazy I know, but a big part of what we perceive comes from what we see, not just from what we hear. At Hanovers last Saturday, while the music was playing I could still see lots of people interacting, even though they couldn’t possibly have heard each other speaking. I could see their conversation. I could see if they were happy or sad or tired or… whatever.

We can each learn a lot about someone by simply listening with our eyes. Ok, so where am I going with this crazy line of thinking? Well when God speaks to me, he often does so by causing my attention to be drawn to someone across the room, even when I am in a room with a hundred other people, He draws me to one specific person. If I then go over and talk to them, I find that our conversation often turns in such a way that I am able to listen to them and encourage them in their walk through this life. They are encouraged and I am encouraged because I listened with my eyes to what God was telling me.

I think I am going to continue to listen with all of my faculties, and I thnk you might want to give it a try. It can be pretty exciting.