Jan Meyers - Listening to Love: Responding to the Startling Voice of God

Praise for
Listening to Love

Jan Meyers is a friend and colleague whose willingness to open her heart to the larger romance Christ has been telling since before the worlds foundation has wooed countless men and women closer to the heart of Christmyself included.

the late B RENT C URTIS , coauthor of The Sacred Romance

God is speaking, always. He invites us to hear, but the noise around us and in us keeps his voice tuned low enough to ignore. I know I need to listen, but I need more than merely being told to do so. Jan Meyers tenderly invites us to consider what we fear we may hear and helps us enter the sweet hope even in hard words. From her own suffering, she speaks of the light of his fierce kindness. What I promise from this book is that Gods voice will not remain dim or slight but that in hearing his passion your joy will grow beyond measure. Thank you, Jan, for listening to God and speaking light and life for us.

D AN B. A LLENDER , PH.D., president, Mars Hill Graduate School, author of The Wounded Heart and The Healing Path

Jans unique voice offers us a bold invitation to imagine what our lives would look like if we trusted in a God whose greatest gift to us is Love, not answers. With patient and wise insight, Jan takes the risk of letting us into her own life and in the process helps us remove the obstacles that stand in the way of embracing the Love weve always longed for. This book is for anyone who hungers for more of God.

K ATHY T ROCCOLI , speaker, singer, and coauthor of Falling in Love with Jesus

Jan Meyers has written a realistic, earthy, and, above all, practical guide on how to recognize the voice of God in the midst of all the other voices clamoring for our attention. And she has done it in plain English, free from all the pious code words that speak only to the initiate. She gently helps us discard the masks, blinders, and earplugs we commonly use to keep a loving God from entering deeply into our hearts.

W ILLIAM F REY , bishop and author of The Dance of Hope

L ISTENING TO L OVE
P UBLISHED BY W ATER B ROOK P RESS
12265 Oracle Boulevard, Suite 200
Colorado Springs, CO 80921

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked (MSG) are taken from The Message. Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked (NKJV) are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked (RSV) are taken from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1946, 1952, and 1971 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission.

Details in some anecdotes and stories have been changed to protect the identities of the persons involved.

Copyright 2004 by Jan Meyers

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Published in the United States by WaterBrook Multnomah, an imprint of The Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Random House Inc., New York.

W ATER B ROOK and its deer colophon are registered trademarks of Random House Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Meyers, Jan, 1964
Listening to love : responding to the startling voice of God / Jan Meyers.1st ed.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-307-55187-0
1. GodLove. 2. Christian life. I. Title.
BT140.M49 2004
231.6dc22

2004010767

v3.1

For Mary Louise Meyers

To Dick Meyers. Thank you for sharing with me your valley of the shadow. Death has no sting, my dear brother.

To Vance and Betsy Brown. Your love and friendship are a lifetime treasure. Thanks for cheerleading this thing to the finish line.

To Kathy Helmers. Thanks for believing in me and this message. Thanks for navigating the waters of publishing on my behalf. You are a wise woman, with an outstretched hand.

To Elisa Stanford, my editor. What a delight to meet you at the Starbucks Tribunal and to travel this rich and winding road with you. Thanks for your kind way with me and your keen eye.

To Cherie. Your passion for this message kept me going countless days. Thanks for allowing Love to win over fear. How can one heart be so trustworthy?

To Jen. Your constant, abiding encouragement and belief are a balm. Your words have brought beauty to me countless times.

To John. Your blessing of this book helped me to be myself on these pages.

To the group of people who were angelic and insistent on saving my sanity, creating and providing a sabbatical for me: Jim and Janet Eney, Vance and Betsy Brown, John and Stasi Eldredge, Jim and Leta Van Meter, Michael and Beth Royal, Mark and Peg Henjum. And for all those who participated anonymously to make those months life-giving and holy.

Beth, Gayle, Peg, Leta, Lori, Katy, Michele. You are in my life. Thank you.

Thanks to the thirsty hearts at the International Anglican Church in Colorado Springs.

This book had many birthplaces: written in Matthews, North Carolina; Bellingham, Washington; Pagosa Springs, Colorado; and Colorado Springs, Colorado. Thanks to those who provided me grace and space for the crafting of it: my friends at the Barnabas Center in Charlotte, BootJack Ranch in

Southwest Colorado, and my patient friends, family, and clients in Colorado Springs.

Those who interacted with the manuscript along the way: Betsy Brown, John Eldredge, Peg Henjum, Marcia Smartt, Gayle Wise, Kevin Kutcher, James and Amy Cole, Lisa Godman, and Steve Brinn.

Listen to me, for the life of your soul is at stake.
G OD

Today, if you hear my voice, do not harden your hearts.
G OD

Sometimes its just plain stupid to get into any kind of wind.
B OB D YLAN

L ove has a way of getting our attention. Actually, Love has a way of messing up our lives. We all know it to be true. If we desire a carefully ordered life, tranquil and serene, then when the Voice of Love calls, we had better run inside and bolt the door. Tight. We can never prepare for this most honored of all guests, who quietly enters and then asks us to follow.