Paying Attention

Nathan Attwood
Pastor

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” Matthew 11:15.

Do you ever have trouble paying attention? If I were completely candid, I would have to admit I frequently find myself struggling to be present and attentive. As I begin my day with coffee and Bible reading, I regularly notice my eyes have been passing over the words of scripture while my mind is on something else entirely. I often have to stop and go back and read a passage again to catch what I missed while my mind was otherwise engaged. After I get dressed, I drive my teenage daugh-ter to school. I frequently find myself zoning out while she’s talking to me and have to discipline my attention back to whatever she is sharing.

I wonder sometimes if our short attention spans are at least partially the product of the mass of messaging that constantly bombards us through technology. Social media is designed to give us rapid-fire quick hits of information and entertainment. Most of us receive hundreds of emails a day and have to quickly scan and cull our inboxes. Text messages, phone calls, televi-sion, print advertising, billboards, magazines, and more--we are inundated with more than we can take in, all aimed for a quick impression.

In 1858, while running for congress, Abraham Lincoln challenged incumbent Stephen Douglas to a series of seven debates. The format of the debates was as follows: The first speaker gave an hour long address. The other would give an address for an hour and a half. The first speaker would then rebut for a half-hour. Lincoln and Douglas had carefully reasoned, highly developed policy arguments through their seven two-hour debates. Most of the hearers were farmers. The debates were attended by huge crowds and brought Lincoln to national promi-nence--though he lost the congressional race, the debates made him a presidential contender and led to his election two years later.

It’s hard to imagine anyone being able to stay awake through a debate like that today, let alone seven of them. It’s hard to imagine anyone being able to follow the train of thought of an hour long address. We would make it ten minutes before we had our phones out scrolling TikToks.

Just the other day, I caught myself scrolling my phone while holding my infant grandson. It occurred to me that I was allowing myself to miss a great gift. One day, far too soon, that baby won’t be a baby anymore. The window of opportunity to see the world through his wide-eyed wonder is closing fast. I realized in that moment that distraction was stealing a precious mo-ment from me. I put away my phone, tickled my grandson, and enjoyed the gift of the sound of his laughter.

German theologian and pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote about the “ministry of listening.” He said that one of the most important ministries a Christian can offer is to simply listen. He said that many Christians do not offer that ministry; many are too busy, too distracted, too quick to speak, too impatient to get through another’s speaking to get to their response. He said that a person who stops listening to others will quickly stop listening to God, too.

At my church, I work very hard to try to get people to listen, both to the Gospel and also to information we share about our ministries. We have so many ways to get the message out! We make pulpit announcements on Sunday and Wednesday evening, we send out emails, we post on Facebook, we post in a bulletin, we ask Sunday school teachers to share, we share through word of mouth, we use text messages. Still, I frequently hear people say, “I wish I’d known about this!” I once had a mentor say that people in churches do not hear anything you tell them until you’ve told them eleven times. I’ve frequently told my staff that the only way to com-municate anything to church people is to get on the phone and call them one-by-one. It’s time consuming, but in a distracted world full of distracted people, there’s no other way.

I’ve learned to turn my frustration over other people’s inattention back on my-self. Truth be told, I’m no better. I fail to pay attention to the many communica-tions from my child’s school, my denomination’s communication department, and, sadly, even from the people I love.

Jesus knew that though many people would hear his words, few of them would actually pay close enough attention to truly attend to them, to ingest them, to allow his words to change them, to heed them and change their lives as a result. “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” We all have ears. We don’t all have ears to hear.

May God give us the gift of attention. This moment is all we have. The past is past and the future is a wish. This moment is all there is; this moment is the gift of life. Help us, O God, to receive it without distraction.

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Peace,

Nathan Attwood
Pastor, Marianna First United Methodist Church 334-315-1326