Liam Martinez - Sacred Art of Listening Reflection Paper – 10/16/2019

Upon reading the Sacred Art of Listening, the reflection that meant the most to me was

the twenty fourth one, contemplative prayer or listening for guidance. The biggest reason for

this is that listening to God is something I struggle with. I will often pray and ask God for advice

or guidance, but I will never know how he will answer me. So, it is entirely possible he has

answered me, and I just haven’t seen it. I have tried to concentrate by only thinking of God and

Jesus before I pray, but this activity does not help. I have not felt many of the fruits of

contemplative practice from my prayers either. For example, I still sometimes judge other

people. I do sometimes listen to my inner voice, but only when it tells me something I already

know. It has never given me any life changing advice. I also usually read my Bible before I

pray, but it unfortunately doesn’t help with finding God in the silence. This phenomenon seems

a bit weird, since reading is still a communication mode. Since I use all but one communication

mode with God, perhaps I should write to or about God to improve our communication. This

reflection also means the most to me because simply pulling myself away from the modern

world to talk to God can sometimes feel like a struggle. I’ll be on my phone, looking at social

media, even though I know that I should talk to God, and it could be half an hour before I finally

put my phone away and pray. My difficulties make me feel even worse when I hear stories of

people doing things like spending thirty minutes talking to God, something I believe it would be

difficult to do.

Thinking about things I can do to try and listen to God, considering the knowledge points

I’ve taken in throughout the course, the first thing I can think to do is simply listen. God

deserves my undivided attention and I want to give it to him. This is even one of the top five
listening behaviors. It can be easy to forget that even a divine entity like God warrants positive

listening practice. Before I finish praying, I could sit and utilize the golden pause for a minute or

two, truly opening myself up to receive a message from God. I also need to make sure I practice

mindful listening and focus on the reason for the golden pause, my lord and savior, and not let

myself get distracted by what usually prevents me from praying. A second thing I can do is

evaluate message content. Since I never know how God will answer my prayers, I need to start

looking out for possible messages God is sending me in my daily life. When I think I see

something that could be a message from God, I need to ask myself questions that will evaluate

the specifics of this possible message. These questions involve every possible way to interpret

possible messages, including ways that do not involve God, what appropriate responses there are

for these possible messages, whether I would respond to God in the same way, and comparing

this to messages I remember from my life and other people’s lives. I am sure to ask God

questions, though, such as asking for the reasons behind behaviors I do that are deemed

questionable by the standards of the Lord’s word. This hopefully shows God I am trying to

listen to him. These questions serve the purposes of informative, attempting to acquire the

reasons behind my behaviors, and persuasive, so I can hear these reasons and use them to change

my behavior.

It seems as if God’s communication style is analytical, at least based on the Bible.

Whenever God talked to someone, he was methodical. He is also cautious in his communication,

since he seems to talk to only a select few people. Based on this, I should avoid being general

when talking to God to improve communication between us.

I have two interpretations of the related diagram. My first interpretation is that the odd

shapes are clouds, reminding us of the God in the sky we are praying to. My second
interpretation is that the odd shapes are body cells, bringing up the idea that prayer is related to

the basics of life, meaning that a connection to God is one of the most basic pleasures a human

can experience. The black and white in the background reminds me of the fact that, no matter

how different people are, they can be united in their goal of communicating with God. The

smaller, slightly chaotic lines in the background of some of the circles reminds me of the fact

that, no matter how chaotic life can get, people can always look to God for guidance.

“On my honor, I have not given, nor received, nor witnessed any unauthorized assistance on this

work.” – Liam Martinez