Liam Martinez - Seven Thousand Ways to Listen Reflection Paper – 12/1/2019

The chapter of the book Seven Thousand Ways to Listen that meant the most to me is God

Blinking. This chapter discusses the ideas of looking for wholeness in brokenness, looking at the

universe through ourselves, and the idea that we can find purpose in life in little, everyday

moments. This chapter is meaningful to me because it discusses God and some aspects of

spirituality relating to life. I find this meaningful since religion is such a big part of my life and

any books that discuss this have some meaning to me.

To me, this chapter means that people should try and look at others the way God looks at

them. The very beginning of the chapter brings up the idea of looking for something beautiful

inside something broken. This is similar to how God looks at all people as sinners, but also loves

them all as his children and thinks of them as beautiful, particularly if they’ve accepted his son

into their hearts. I realized this when I was at church camp and heard a sermon that made me

realize that I had drifted from God, but that he still loved me and saw the beauty in me. This

made me rededicate my life to Christ. This idea is expanded by the statement that, “Universal

Wholeness waits beneath our brokenness.” This quote, to me, that people can be broken on the

outside due to their sins and the weight the world has on them. However, underneath this, if they

have God and Jesus’ love in their hearts, they can be beautiful and whole. We have to sense,

interpret, evaluate, and respond to what God has to say in order to truly see this, though. We

need to want to be attentive and focused when it comes to the Lord. Unfortunately, most people

don’t realize this, so they stay broken and sad. Perhaps realizing this and living your life for God

and Jesus is what the chapter means when it says to “go deeper”. Many people say following

Jesus can help you deal with the parts of your life that make you feel broken. The first line is
followed by a quote saying that looking deep enough into the personal leads to the universe. To

me, this refers to how deep God, the creator of the universe, is tied to some people’s identities,

their Christian faith influencing large parts of how they see the world and live their lives.

However, to me, the chapter is also saying that there are other ways to God and

wholeness, even if I personally disagree with this. Still, though, the chapter reminds us that,

even though we may think that God has abandoned us, he is, in fact, always with us. We just

loose sight of him in the moment. This is a human experience that we all go through. We all

have moments where we let our sins and the world weigh us down. We are not supposed to

avoid having these moments, and instead remember that God is with us when we experience

these moments. Additionally, the chapter seems to state that, at any moment, you could learn

something that completely changes your perception of life and how you live it. So, we should

look at ourselves and our identities in a “moment by moment” way.

The chapter also states that there is a continuous mystery in life. Since this chapter is

about God, I believe this refers to the mystery of whether God exists. This can be considered a

mystery since some believe that there is not enough evidence to prove God’s existence. This is

supported by the chapter stating that God helps break our trance. When we remember what God

and Jesus do for us, we forget what skeptics say about the possibility they don’t exist. Fight

through the sin and the weight of the world to make it to God’s love.

Looking at the meditation at the end of the chapter, it was hard to actually think of a way

to envision a tree above ground. Ultimately, I envisioned a tree at the top of a small and tall hill.

It was also hard to imagine a part of myself as what is holding myself down, since I consider

Jesus to be what is holding me down. I also don’t believe that the other side of any hard time can

be simple, since life never really seems to be simple, even the spiritual aspects of it.
“On my honor, I have not given, nor received, nor witnessed any unauthorized assistance on this

work.” – Liam Martinez