I enjoyed hearing Steve Chalke on Chris Evan’s R2 show this morning (funny as we usually have R1 on in the morning). I found Steve an inspiration when I was doing christian youth work. He told a story this morning that I have now heard twice in three days so I think it is something for me to take notice of!
Two men, deep in conversation, walked down a bustling city street. One is at home, the other visiting from the countryside.
Passing a tree, the visitor suddenly stopped. ‘Can you hear that?’ he asked as pedestrians squeezed and bumped past them.
‘Hear what?’ his friend replied.
‘The cricket singing. It must be in the tree.’ He leant with one ear towards the tree to tune into the source of the song.
‘There’s no cricket, it’s in your head!’ the city worker exclaimed, as a woman walked by shouting into her phone. ‘And, even if there were, you’d never hear it over the noise of all these people and this traffic.’
The visitor’s friend laughed and walked on.
But, as he did so, the visitor pulled a small coin from his pocket and let it drop to the ground. The coin hit the pavement and quietly rolled to rest.
Intuitively his friend twisted his head round, glancing over his shoulder at the ground to search for the coin. At the same moment, perhaps twenty other pedestrians surreptitiously scanned the ground as they walked by.
With a smile, the visitor looked at his friend and said, ‘You’re listening to the wrong tune.’
What tune are you listening to? What do you fill your head with? Are you hearing your soft flute of inner God given wisdom or is it drowned out by the brass band of thought? I know I find myself too often tuned in to the band. When I catch myself doing this I imagine a glitter ball settling, letting my thoughts settle without judging myself of them, without answering them, without labelling them. I then re-find as sense of inner peace and wisdom.
