Listening to the Bible

I was going to write this week about prayer, but this blog post changed my mind:

It sounds a bit shocking to twenty-first-century ears, but hearing has been the primary way Christians have taken in Scripture throughout the centuries.

We should all thank God for movable type, but I wonder if we’ve lost something over time as we stopped listening. No doubt, early Christians were missing something by not reading the text for themselves, but was there something the ancients knew about listening that we today have forgotten?

It seems like a fitting follow-up to last week’s post about reading or listening to the Bible.

I love to read. If you gave me a choice between reading a book or listening to it, I’d choose reading nine times out of ten.

But I’ve noticed a couple of things. First, when I listen to something I’ve read, I absorb it differently. Hearing seems to access a different part of the brain. I’ve sometimes absorbed something for the first time after listening to it, even if I’ve read it many times before.

I’ve also noticed that some people prefer to listen rather than read.

After we suggested in one of our lessons that people try listening to the Bible, one of our participants wrote to us. “Every morning I go for a walk, listening to the Bible and then spending time in prayer. It’s a really simple change, but it’s made a big difference in my life.”

If you’ve never tried listening to the Bible, then it’s worth trying. It’s a great way to absorb God’s Word.