May 2026 | The Refinery

31 Days of Learning to Listen

Introduction

We have arrived at the fifth and final posture in the SHAWL journey: Listen. Having surrendered our will in January, having bowed low in humility through February, having learned to abide in the life of Christ through March, and having practiced the holy discipline of waiting through April, we now arrive at the ear.

Listening is where everything is confirmed, clarified, and commissioned. It is the posture that completes the others. A surrendered heart that does not listen will drift. A humble soul that does not hear will grow passive. An abiding branch that is not attentive to the Vine's instructions will grow in directions God never intended. A waiting spirit that does not listen for the signal will wait past the moment of movement. Listening is the integrating posture — the one that ties all the others together and gives them direction.

But listening to God is not natural. It is learned. It requires practice, patience, and a particular quality of interior stillness that runs against the grain of nearly everything our culture values. We live in a world of constant noise, instant information, and relentless stimulation. To choose the discipline of listening is to swim upstream — and it is worth every stroke.

Over these thirty days, we will walk with biblical men and women who learned to listen — some naturally, some reluctantly, some at great personal cost. We will encounter Samuel in the temple at night, Elijah in the cave after the earthquake, Mary at the feet of Jesus, Abraham walking toward a land he could not yet see, and Mary Magdalene in a garden, hearing her name spoken by the Risen Lord. Each one will teach us something different about what it means to quiet our souls and hear the voice of the Living God.

The invitation of this month is simple and radical: let your listening become a lifestyle. Not a technique you deploy occasionally, not a spiritual discipline reserved for designated quiet times, but a posture so ingrained that you are always attentive — to the Word, to the Spirit, to the people around you, to the burning bushes that appear in the ordinary moments of your days.

"He who has ears to hear, let him hear" (Matthew 11:15). These are among the most repeated words of Jesus in all the Gospels.

He said it repeatedly because hearing is not automatic. It is chosen.

It is cultivated. It is the fruit of a life oriented toward the voice of God.

May this month be the beginning of a listening life that lasts.