The Awesome Power of Listening
When I lived in Virginia, I ran every Saturday morning with a group of other Galloway runners (run/walk method), and one of the other runners decided I needed to finally break the two-hour half marathon barrier. I had gotten close with a 2:00:58 half marathon, but I couldn’t seem to get past that big ugly 2. Finally, Les and Charlie picked the absolute flattest half marathon they could find, The Dismal Swamp Stomp, and we decided we were going to go all out with Les as my pacer.
Les was at this time about 58 years old, had been running his whole life, including going to college on a cross country scholarship, and was also the proud owner of both a 2:30:00 marathon and at the time held the Master’s records for a number of half marathons. So, he was the logical choice, and it was one day when we were out running the Hampton Roads, Virginia’s version of “hills” (most people call them bridges) that Les stopped in the middle of the run, pulled me to the side, and very calmly said, “You’re not listening Mike. You need to start listening.”
I was totally befuddled because I thought I had been listening as we ran and chatted, but Les straightened me out. “No, don’t listen to my voice or even to all the cars around us.” As he poked me in the chest he said, “Listen here, to your heart and to the cadence that is inside of you. Running faster is not in technique; it’s not in hip rotation. It’s all inside you. Start listening to what is transpiring inside of you.” It is probably one of the greatest pieces of advice I have ever received. Not only did I finally break the 2-hour barrier in that half marathon finishing in a remarkable 1:57:30, but something clicked inside my soul also.
Our world is full of voices today. Voices are everywhere, and they are constant. We live in a connected world that is like a constant barrage of words and multiple voices. We talk incessantly, whether that be the rare occasions when you actually see people having a real conversation or whether it be texting, Facebooking, Twittering, or the seemingly nine million other ways we share our voices today. Even in church we spend so much time hearing voices that we get no time to actually do the one thing that is like the key that can unlock our souls. We get no training in how to actually listen. I am way more successful as a runner when I put aside the music and just run and listen because I am connected to a power source like no others.
“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” John 10:27. This word “listen” comes from the Greek word “akouo” which means to hear, acknowledge, understand, or heed. There are many different ways this one word can be interpreted, but the one that I have found most useful in my running and in rebuilding a spiritual life is the interpretation that is used here in John and many other passages. See this meaning is “to understand, comprehend or RECOGNIZE”, and I want to especially emphasize the “recognize” part of this word.
In running what Lee was encouraging me to “listen” to was how my body responded to adding speed, not to listen in my head but to internalize my listening to listen to how my body responded to a request for more speed, and how it responded to acting on that request. Then I had to file that listened to memory away for a race when I needed to block out all the reasons why I shouldn’t keep adding speed, why my pace “felt” too fast, and why my body felt like it was about to explode; instead I would be able to reach for the memory of something internal, an internal voice that I could recognize and go “oh yeah, I’ve done this before and lived through it”.
Well, we don’t have enough running partners in our spiritual lives, our professional lives, our married lives, or our physical lives that can get us to internalize and separate what we need to listen to and what we don’t need to listen to. I am being really careful not to use the word “hear” because “to hear” is a whole separate meaning from “to listen”. For instance, even though I am hard of hearing, I can hear somebody say something, but I may not have listened. I have “heard” many great sermons; I have listened to very few (sorry all my hard working pastors out there), because I wasn’t taking the thoughts that were being uttered and internalizing them to ensure that when I needed them I would be able to reach into my memory and find the source of a listened to thought that would be recognizable enough to push through the clutter of the heard junk so I could act in a positive way and push through to a hard fought victory.
I want to be a listening coach, not just another voice out there. Perhaps that is why I run so hard and run so long. I am trying to figure out how it is that I listen and then be able to put it into words so that I can help others to listen rather than just hear. This is why I love running through my Bighorn Mountains now; it is so incredibly easy to listen because it is a rare day when you encounter somebody else out on the trails. It is so quiet and there is no cell coverage, so it’s not like you’re going to click into Facebook and discover what your friends are eating that day. I don’t have to worry about texts or emails or phone calls when I run there because I’m not able to get anything anyway. So, I can concentrate and really listen.
Let me give you an idea of how I listen. So many times, when I am running, I will be heading up in elevation on the trail and come to what looks like a pretty good uphill section. What I will do is stop for just a brief second and quiet my mind, just empty the thoughts that have been occupying my mind. I quiet my breathing down, and then I concentrate on trying to hear my heartbeat, trying to hear what my muscles are saying, and then I’ll take off up the hill giving it everything I have. But rather than concentrate on the effort of running the hill, I try to focus on listening to my body, listening to my heart, my muscles, and most of all I am listening for that voice that says push it a little harder.
What I am doing as I run is internally, and sometimes out loud if necessary, asking myself questions like, “am I breathing through my nose or mouth, sucking wind or drawing wind?”, “am I leaning into the hill and letting gravity take my body into the bulk of the hill or sitting back on my heals and letting gravity pull me the opposite way I want to go?”, “is my heart really beating that fast or am I just imagining it?”, “are my quads busting through the skin of my leg or is that just a feeling because I am increasing tension in my muscles?”, and a myriad of other questions that I use to push out the negative and gain knowledge, comprehension, and recognition so the next time I do this I already know how much further I can push myself. Then when I get to the top of the hill, no matter how successful or unsuccessful it was, I will stop and file away that memory and then figure out how to bring it back out the next time I am in a race and need to put away the self-defeating thoughts that say I can’t make it up that hill.
I take that same approach to building my spiritual life, my personal life, and my professional life. I actively will take breaks during the day and listen. Spiritually I know a lot of verses because I have memorized them, but rather than just pull the words out of my head, I instead pause and begin to listen. “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.” (Philippians 4:12b) Instead of just mindlessly repeating the words, I begin to listen to them, and for me I question the words. I begin to ask myself questions about the verse: “am I in learning mode or do I think I know it already?”, “what is the secret?”, “am I content or still restless?”, “seriously in every situation or am I just choosing the situations that don’t make me uncomfortable?”. As I ask myself questions, I am constantly filing the listened to memories away in my mind so that the next time I “feel” like I have to do more I can draw out from the memory bank what it felt like to listen, learn, and be content.
Listening takes something active that is much different than merely hearing. Hearing is pretty easy because you don’t really have to act on what you hear all the time; you can just hear it and go on with your life. Part of this is because we live in such a noisy world that we are constantly hearing stuff, but we are getting few opportunities to actually listen; in fact, there are few voices that elicit in us the desire to listen rather than just hear.
I always think back and am very thankful for Les’ lesson that day on the “hills” of Hampton Roads. We could have just kept running the way we were, and maybe one day I would have broken the two-hour barrier (or maybe not). But Les took the time, and he did something that I believe is the greatest thing we can do as humans. Les CARED about my goals and my running, but most of all he cared about me as a person because as we ran I had shared with him many of the things I had been through coming home from Kazakhstan, bloody and broken, and Les cared enough about me as a person that he stopped what we were doing and told me to “listen” instead of just “hear”. Being able to differentiate between the two is probably one of the most amazing things that has happened in my life up until this moment because I treasure listening. I treasure it on my long runs, I treasure it when I really begin to listen to the words of God, I treasure it when I listen to the love of my life, and I treasure it when I listen to my co-workers and family.
It is amazing what you hear when you listen rather than just hear. For instance, I was listening to one of my co-workers talk about a recent party night, and what I heard was more of what I hear a lot of living in a small town with very little entertainment but lots of alcohol. What I heard was somebody getting drunk and doing things that maybe they would have regretted if they had been of a sober mind. But what I listened to was something far different. What I listened to was somebody crying out that somebody would recognize them for the hard work they did, the talent inside of them, and the beauty they long to bring to the world. When I listen, I get beyond the heard word and thoughts and feelings, and I get a glimpse of not only the brokenness but the potential for greatness.
All of us have incredible greatness within us, but so few people are listening that many of us will just live average lives, getting by and never being truly listened to for the incredible potential greatness inside of us. Imagine if we truly began to listen to those around us, listening for the incredible gifts and talents of those around us, and if we listened for a way to dig that incredible potential out of that person instead of being in fear that maybe they’ll take our job, or our position, or break our record, or make us look bad. Imagine what our world would be like if, instead of listening to hear and then critique other people, we instead listened to bring out the greatness in other people. Imagine if we began to listen, not for what we can hear but for what is the wonder, the greatness, the incredible potential of the kids that surround us. Imagine if, instead of trying to teach people, we began to listen to people and draw out of them the incredible gifts and talents that have been placed inside of them with no fear that they may do greater things than we have done or steal our position or make us somehow look smaller (as if that’s possible if we were truly listeners instead of just hearers).
I want to start a “Listening Revolution”, a movement of people that instead of trying to rise up so their voice could be heard instead began to raise other people up so their voice could be heard. I want to start a revolution of people that are willing to put the device away just long enough to listen to what is inside of themselves first (because you are amazing, and you have incredible gifts and talents, even if you don’t think you do), and then because they have gotten so good at listening that they begin to listen for the amazing in the people around them. Don’t try and pick a lot of people. Pick one person and start listening to them today. Don’t just hear the words and then try and give advice on how to act on them. Listen to them; this will take more effort.
I can’t tell you how many times I had run with Lee with him both talking and listening before he stopped on that bridge and poked me in the chest. But Lee must have learned the secret of being content first, because he was able to listen to me and then challenge me to listen to myself. This is how revolutions of greatness begin, not by daring acts of protest or throwing chests of tea into the bay, but by people listening to the greatness within and then listening to the greatness of those around and acting on the greatness instead of just the mundane every day stuff.
When I set out to live an ultra-life, I didn’t set out to just live an average, get by and finish a 5K life. I truly wanted that John 10:10 life that Jesus promised “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full”. A “to the full” life is an over and above life, a life more abundant, more exceeding, and more excellent than I could ever dream or imagine. An ultra-life means we really believe that there is One “who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20) and that this One is “at work within us”. An ultra-life is a listening life, a life filled with the wonder of listening both to external but more importantly to the internal. An ultra-life is rich and full and vibrant, and it brings that same richness, fullness and vibrancy to those who we are blessed to be surrounded by. An ultra-life is obtainable because the One who created us created us for greatness, but most importantly He designed us to draw the greatness out of the ones who surround us.
The Awesome Power of Listening
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