Keith R. Anderson - A Spirituality of Listening: Living What We Hear

A
SPIRITUALITY
OF LISTENING

LIVING WHAT WE HEAR

KEITH R. ANDERSON

FOREWORD BY DAN B. ALLENDER

InterVarsity Press
P.O. Box 1400,
Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426

2016 by Keith R. Anderson

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from InterVarsity Press.

InterVarsity Pressis the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, a movement of students and faculty active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges and schools of nursing in the United States of America, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. For information about local and regional activities, visit intervarsity.org .

Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

While any stories in this book are true, some names and identifying information may have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals.

Cover design:Cindy Kiple
Images:snvv/iStockphoto

ISBN 978-0-8308-9920-3 (digital)
ISBN 978-0-8308-4609-2 (print)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Anderson, Keith, 1949-

Title: A spirituality of listening : living what we hear / Keith R. Anderson

; foreword by Dan B. Allender.

Description: Downers Grove : InterVarsity Press, 2016. | Includes

bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015040189 (print) | LCCN 2015041773 (ebook) | ISBN

9780830846092 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780830899203 (eBook)

Subjects: LCSH: Listening--Religious aspects--Christianity.

Classification: LCC BV4647.L56 A53 2016 (print) | LCC BV4647.L56 (ebook) |

DDC 231.7--dc23

LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015040189

To Wendy:

Because you alone know the meaning of the words:
Now instead of two stories fumbling to meet,
we belong to one story that the two, joining, made.

Wendell Berry

I t was early September 2009 and it was the first time I sat in the office of the new president of The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology. Keith Anderson had been president for less than three months. I asked him, What is the first order of business for you in your first one hundred days? He didnt smile. He answered: You.

I thought he was joking. Keiths skin is mostly hidden behind a salty, no nonsense, almost curmudgeonly beard, but I could see the reddishness of his intensity. He was not joking. A quixotic playfulness passed over his face, but his gaze was resolute. You are my major focus for the first one hundred and perhaps several hundred days. I simply asked, Why?

I dont know how you will play. You have gone from being the president to being faculty. I dont know how you will handle being ledyou have never been my employee. Then he added, If you are going to remain in this school and know joy, then you need to let me help you shepherd your legacy.

I was looking forward to catching up with a friend and within minutes I was asked to consider the viability and trajectory of my future at The Seattle School. It was a brief conversation that would change the direction of my life. And it all came about because Keith Anderson has a deep, passionate, holy heart to explore terrain that most fear to tread.

If you were to hear Keith speak about himself you would hear the self-deprecation of a good Baptist grandson of Swedish immigrants. There are few that can out-work him and he is loyal to a fault. In many ways, I sense he comes from another worldone where your word is troth and your truth is an oath to love. His pursuit of knowledge and wisdom is equally a desire to be faithful to the many living and dead who have shaped his heart and mind. He is a man that I would follow to storm the gates of hell if he asked.

And he asked if I could play well and be led by him. It was premature to say I can and will, but I knew in my heart that few get the privilege in this life to work for a person whose words are fundamentally true to his heart. I have said to Keith more times than I can count: You must write more.

When I see an email from Keith to the board or student body, I hungrily read each word because Keith cherishes words and the form in which they come. What is said is both beautiful and compelling. I recall the day when Keith told me that a new labor of love was finished. I implored for the opportunity to read.

This book is about listening. Few listen well. It is not a hip category or skill that permeates the cultural or academic conversation. It is given at best a polite head nod, the way we might meet an aged man or woman as we offer them our seat on public transportation. We give listening a seat but we dont deign to ask it a single question.

Listening requires a heart that is humble enough to move slowly through the cadence of anothers speech. It requires the courage to risk asking and then the even greater risk of waiting for patterns to occur that illumine what is being said. Listening is the holy work of attuning ones soul to the accumulation of meaning that comes only to those who tend to speech like a midwife. It is art and skill, knowledge and wisdom.

Listening requires fierce quietness. Keith Anderson is a fiercely humble, kind and generous man who will help you receive the blessing of attunement. Keith writes in a manner that is accessible but also invites you to join him on a theologically rich trek up his beloved Mount Rainer. The journey is demanding and at times stunning and dangerous. The benefit is the certainty that your heart will become larger and your capacity for meaningful connection with God and others enriched.

I have worked for Keith now for six years. I hope to do so for many more. His ability to listen to my heart has enabled me to discover the greater calling of the kingdom of God for my last few decades on this earth. I am his debtor for a lifetime of listening and now I am thankful that you get to listen to the beauty of his words and life. You too will never be the same.

Telling a story is like reaching into a granary full of wheat and drawing out only a handful. There is always more to tell than can be told.

Wendell Berry

I have spent my life in the Gospels listening to Jesus. I have watched him and tried to listen and learn. I have tripped over his words as often as I have found the way, but I am drawn again and again to listen. Sometimes I wonder if I make things more difficult than they need to be. What I cant shake is the feeling that I have lived my life in a kind of presence because of the words. Like Wendell Berrys words above, I am drawn to listening because I have a hunch that there is always more to tell than can be told.