There was a preacher I remember from my youth ( not that I am old now or anything), that used to always say in the middle of his sermons “Are you Listening?”. It was sort of weird that he would get to the end of a sentence and just add in “Are you Listening”, “Are you Listening”?
As a young man, I thought maybe he had spotted a napping listener, or had looked over at the teenagers, but I soon realized he was saying “Do you hear what I am telling you.”
This is great advice and something to ponder today. “Are you Listening”, or just reading, or hearing and changing nothing?
22-24Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don’t act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like.
25But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action. (James 1:22-25, The Message)