Training the Third Ear

More rain again this morning although much brighter in the afternoon and evening.  The builders arrived shortly after breakfast and Sara went off to do her usual stint at Morning Star.  She had planned to walk up there but the weather, once more, got the better of her.  I set off by car to Whaddon to attend Mid-Week Eucharist followed by a Team Staff Meeting at Alderbury Vicarage which today only lasted just over an hour.  I quickly called in at Tesco’s to get some cash for Sara before returning home. Builders were in full swing and installing the new lights in the new kitchen ceiling.  They look fantastic and, at long last, we’ll have some clear decent lighting – so pleased we decided to have these installed at the same time as the ceiling.  The afternoon seemed to fly by and it didn’t seem long before I was setting off to Seend for my fifth session on pastoral care.  Tonight we looked at non-verbal listening and undertook some exercises in this.  A couple of quite raw scenarios for people.  This is certainly an area which requires a lot of practice – especially the use of a “third ear” – i.e. we have two ears listening to the person and our own thoughts and a third ear trying to listen to God to find out what he is saying about the situation.  I realise that sometimes I can be rubbish at this and need to listen out for god’s word much more – training the third ear is something I shall be trying to do over the next week.