These are the words that I have sensed God impressing upon me lately: Listen from different places, connect in different ways. I took a ULab course online this fall that talked about two ways of listening and being:
In the paradigm of an inverted U, we tend to download incoming information in the way we have grown up receiving it. We don't interrogate it, reflect on it, and we're not open to thinking critically in new ways. This can lead us along a closed path where we download, deny, dis-connect, and blame..all which lead toward destruction. This is a closed system called "absencing" and is largely about "me" or our ego. In this closed way of seeing and being, we close our minds out of ignorance, close our hearts out of greed/pride/hate/anger, and close our wills out of fear. We see this happening in so many ways in families, communities, the world, and on the political stage today.
In the visual of the U, we set an intention to listen with fresh ears. To recognize and suspend our judgments. To listen from different places. We see with fresh eyes and connect from the field. We get closer and connect in a different way. We then surrender and spend time in reflection and meditation and allow the information to crystallize so that we might co-create differently. This is an open system called "presencing" and it is largely about the eco system...or "we, not me." In this open way of seeing and being, we open our minds with curiosity, open our hearts with compassion and empathy, and we open our wills with courage.
This EdX course was not specifically Biblically-based,...but it was Biblically-based, if you get what I mean. So many Scriptures came to me as I listened to the descriptions of both U's.
1. Where do you see absencing happening in your own behavior? around you in the world?
2. Where do you see presencing happening in your own behavior? around you in the world?
3. How might you listen from a different place and connect in a different way this month?
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