1. First, sitting under is being a listener
Luke describes Mary as one, “who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying…”
Listening is a huge skill for Christians. Our lives are about listening to and responding to the voice of God that comes to us through the scriptures and the Spirit…and that most often comes through other believers. Perhaps the most basic skill is learning to be a good listener. And most of us are not.
We are more concerned with what we are going to say, the point we are going to make, the argument that we are putting forward than we are listening to another. We are more interested in what we have planned to do and want to accomplish than listening to what others have learned along the way.
In one of his writings, Henri Nouwen points out that in Latin, the same root word is behind both “to listen” and “to obey.” The obedient devoted life is one where we listen well to Christ. Where we listen to Christ’s word of the scriptures and where we hear his voice coming to us through biblically tutored, wise friends.
My friends, how are your listening skills? How would your day change if the first thing you did was to listen to Jesus through the scriptures prayer? Could this Lenten season be a time for you to practice listening more than speaking, listening more than doing, listening more than anything else? Sitting under is being a listener.
2. Second, sitting under is being a learner
There is an old saying that goes, when the student is ready, the teacher appears. That saying is a reminder that all learning and growth is dependent upon our attitude, our willingness to become the student, to take the place at another’s feet.
Peter Senge’s book The Fifth Discipline declared that all healthy organizations had to develop the discipline of being a “learning organization”. In the same way, we all are called to be “life time learners” who are constantly and consistently in environments where we are sitting under those who can teach us how to know the word of Jesus and live the Christian life.
I realize that we are all busy people with much to do, but the primary commitment of being a learner must come first. This commitment to being a learner is at the heart of our Big Wednesday Adult Education program and our midweek morning studies. And learning together, in classes and studies and small groups is what mutual submission is all about.
Do you have a place where you are regularly the “learner”? Do you have a regular commitment to sitting at the feet of another Christian and through submitting to the word of Jesus, you learn together? Sitting under is being a learner.
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