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| (Ascending Masada in Israel, via cable car) |
To hear someone, I mean really hear them, is to understand them. Hearing is for understanding.
To understand is to "stand under." To get beneath someone. To hear and understand requires getting lower, below, the one who is addressing you.
All this - hearing and understanding, which is true listening - is an act of humility. Only the humble hear. The proud have deaf ears.
This is true not only in human relationships, but in our relationship with God. To have ears to hear God, and therefore to understand what God is saying, means to place yourself lower than God (the correct position, irregardless). It is to be humble.
Understanding God comes to the humble; the proud remain confused. (James 4:6)
