Category: Spiritual Formation

A day or two ago I began a conversation about the path that God has guided me down for 30+ years. I have decided to call that path I’m on the path of a listening servant. Today, I want to flesh out what I mean by “listening servant” and why I believe this is my God given path.

The path of a listening servant – what does this mean? For me, this path is one that contains two actions – listening and serving. In his book Uprising: a revolution of the soul author Erwin McManus concludes that the value of serving others is what we should all be exercising. After all if Jesus came to server other, shouldn’t we do the same? This part of my path has been easy for me to follow. One of my spiritual gifts is serving so this comes naturally to me. How and where I serve ebbs and flows with the rhythms of my life. To be honest I have had to learn to say “no” and establish some healthy boundaries but all in all I do have a passion about serving.

Some serving opportunities come along that don’t require a lot of thought: holding the door for someone, helping a friend or neighbor, or pitching in to clean up a mess. Other opportunities may not be so clear: things that push your boundaries or may over extend you, opportunities outside your comfort zone or abilities, or stepping in to help in a messy situation. Don’t get me wrong there are a number of valid reasons why “no” is the correct response, but what about those opportunities where you may be saying “no” but God want you to say “yes?” How do you discern how you will respond in this situation? This is where the listening part of my path comes into focus.

Serving comes naturally to me but I have only in the last few years really begun to hone my listening skills. It seems that in the last few months God has testing me in this area as well. I taught a seminary class called Scared Conversations that focused on the skill of listening and I have felt more promptings by the Spirit than I have in a long while. When I responded in the affirmative to these promptings God has opened a number of doors and when I responded in the negative, well I guess I won’t know what may have been. This path is not only about listening to God, it’s also about listening to the stories of others.

I have thought for a long time that we have lost the art of conversation. We are good at talking at each other, we may even hear what the other is saying but we don’t take the time to listen. As the other is speaking we are to busy forming our response that we don’t truly hear what they are saying. I’ll expand on this theme in another posting on another day.

As we take the time to listen to God or another, as we set aside our own agenda and respond to what God or the other is saying. As I respond to God in service to another or respond the the needs expressed by the other I am taking steps down the path of the listening servant, the path that God has chosen for me.

If you are interested in discerning the path God has placed you on contact me and we can talk.

Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God ’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track. (Proverbs 3:5, 6 MSG)

This is a verse that I return to regularly as I seek to understand who I am and where God is guiding me. It’s such an easy verse – If I trust God, He will guide me. Simple to understand but so hard to live out. I want to know how I can do something or figure something out. I want to listen to my own words to find the solution to a problem. This verse says trust God, listen to God not to Scott, not to the world – they can’t or won’t guide you in the right direction. No, trust God and He will “keep me on track” or in other versions “ make straight your paths” (ESV). It’s this last word or idea I want to focus on today. The idea of keeping my on a straight path.

These last few months I have spent a great deal of time pondering paths. In the fall while up north I took a series of photographs of paths and produces a short book featuring them. I have written previously about my wandering paths (My Path). My conclusion from almost a year ago was this:

From my perspective this has simply been an eclectic adventure through life. But from God’s perspective it has been about relationships, disciplining (both receiving and giving), equipping, learning to trust, seeing God provide, and stepping out in faith. Every step that has been part of this adventure I can point out examples of how God was there guiding my steps, making my path straight. But those stories will have to wait for another time.

I admit I live a rather eclectic life. My education, jobs, and life experiences have challenged both hemispheres of my brain. While my various jobs have given me a number of platforms on which to walk my path and my education and life experiences have given me the ability to contextualize the setting through which my path lead these things don’t define the path I walk. It is, if I follow the advice of Proverbs 3:5-6, God who is defining my path. I keep wondering if “path” should be singular or plural. Does God guide us down many paths or is it a single path with multiple spurs? At this time I am leaning towards the idea that God sends us down a single path that contains multiple spurs that we sometimes need to walk down.

The path God has guided me on is one that has become well worn. I have been walking on it for the last 30+ years. I haven’t always been able to name my path, but as I reflect back it is the one that I know I have been on. The landscape that my path passed through has change as I have taken on different jobs, my experiences have shaped what my path looked like, and my growth in knowledge and wisdom have opened up different spurs to explore. So what is this path that I am on? What name have I given it? After much pondering and prayer the name that seems to fit the path that I am on is “listening servant.” Diane Mills in her book Conversations – the sacred art, says this “Our true paths are those that don’t excite us, but rather they are those that enliven us.” There are a lot of things that I do that I am excited about, but there are only a couple of things that really enliven me: listening to others stories and coming along side other and walking with them for a while (listening and serving).

In part two I will go into greater detail about what I mean by the path of a listening servant.

I leave you with this today – Have you ever thought about the path that God has you traveling down? What does it look like? What landscape does it pass through? What spurs might you have to explore?