Lent 3 | 2025
Invitation to Wonder: Listen to Live
“Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live…” Isaiah 55:2-3
“The real problem of the Christian life comes where people do not usually look for it. It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back…in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day.”
When C.S. Lewis wrote these words in 1952, he had no idea what the iphone would bring: jolts of alarms, emails, notifications, alerts, texts, calls. Still, he was prescient in saying, “the real problem of the Christian life comes…the very moment you wake up each morning.”
The attention economy pushes urgency, fear, and dopamine-driven engagement to keep us checking our phones, scrolling through social media, and consuming news.
The more time we spend on screens first thing in the morning, the more likely we are to continue engaging with digital distractions throughout the day.
Did you know that sleep restores our brains by flushing out toxins that build up during waking hours? Our brains are quite literally at their “cleanest and clearest” upon waking.
There’s a real cost to just giving away our precious attention the first thing in the morning - when we are primed for vitality. Yet we throw it all away so carelessly.
Today’s Lenten scripture challenges the choices I make, the habits that leave me thirsty for something better – and calls me to return to a God who prepares a wonderful physical and spiritual feast each day.
To those of us thirsty, out in the wilderness, here is an invitation to turn away from what does not satisfy and to seek God’s mercy and abundant life.
“Listen, so that you may live.” What is this listening that leads to life?
Let’s talk morning routines.
Online high-performance morning routines are inspired by influencers, elite athletes, CEOs: 2 hour regimens that kick off before dawn, primed by 6:30am to dominate the day.
What about a morning routine that is gentler and kinder? A routine that holds off hungry distractions and orients your heart toward God, a routine inspired by ancient Christians - one that skips the ice cold shower? Try this:
#1. Listen to Live: Protect the Silence
“Seek the Lord…call him while he is near.” Isaiah 55:6
“Silence yourself to hear God speaking within you.” St. Augustine
“Silence is not a void to be filled. It is a place where we listen for the whispers of God.” Macrina Wiederkehr
#2. Listen to Live: Savor God’s Word
“Eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.” Isaiah 55:2
“When we read, God speaks to us.” Jerome
“The Word of Scripture should never stop sounding in your ears and working in you all day long, just like the words of someone you love… Do not ask, ‘How shall I pass this on?’ but ‘What does it say to me?’ Then ponder this word long in your heart until it has gone right into you and taken possession of you.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer
"The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart. Listen with your heart, for the heart is where God speaks." Augustine
#3 Listen to Live: Pray with Attention
“Incline your ear, and come to God” Isaiah 55:3
“Listen with the ear of your heart.” St. Benedict
"Many voices ask for our attention... But underneath all these often very noisy voices is a still, small voice that says, 'You are my Beloved, my favor rests on you.' That's the voice we need most of all to hear."
"You have to listen to the one who calls you beloved. That has to be affirmed over and over again. That is prayer—listening to the voice of the one who calls you 'the beloved. It is being alone with the One who says, 'You are my Beloved, I want to be with you. Don’t go running around, don’t start to prove to everybody that you’re beloved. You are already beloved.'" Henri J.M. Nouwen
#4: Listen to Live: Step into the Day
Through a simple morning practice, however brief, we resist competing distractions and prioritize deep, sacred attention.
C.S. Lewis assures us that when we make it our “first job of the morning” to shove back the clamor of hopes, wishes, distractions and demands, and listen instead to that other Voice, taking that other point of view, then we allow that other larger, stronger, quieter life to come flowing in.
Today, let us step out of the wind, as Lewis says, and return to all that awaits: the richness of God’s mercy and beauty of our lives.