“…give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?”
1 Kings 3:9 (NIV)

I have spent my career listening.

I’ve listened to tens of thousands of phone calls. But that’s not all. When I visit a client to coach or train their team members, I listen to their stories, their grievances, and their complaints. When I walk into the client’s C-suite and chat with the executive leaders, I listen to their vision, their challenges, and their frustrations.

One of the lessons that I’ve learned along my career journey is that virtually every customer service issue can be traced back to a breakdown in communication. I’ve found the same thing to be true in life. Conflicts and trouble arise when things aren’t communicated, when they aren’t effectively communicated, or when they are miscommunicated.

And sometimes, things are clearly communicated, but people simply don’t know how to listen.

Today’s chapter is one of those legendary chapters. Even people who have never cracked open the Great Story for themselves have heard the story of today’s chapter. God asks King Solomon to make a wish. Solomon doesn’t ask for wealth, or fame, or even more wishes. Everyone knows he asked for wisdom.

You know what? Solomon didn’t ask for wisdom.

The most common Hebrew word for wisdom is hokmāh. When Proverbs states that “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,” that’s hokmāh. Solomon didn’t ask for that. Solomon asked for lev shomea, which literally translated is a “heart that listens.”

I find that profound, because after everything I’ve learned in my career and life, I am more aware than ever of how much I need a listening heart.

A heart that listens beneath another person’s words.
A heart that listens for what fear and pride are doing inside me.
A heart that listens for God’s whisper beneath the ceaseless noise of the world.

As I observe the world around me, I find it drowning in information and starving for wisdom. Everyone has an opinion. Everyone has a microphone and a video studio to broadcast to the world. Algorithms reward immediate reaction, outrage, certainty, and volume.

And God’s ancient invitation cuts against all of it. Ask for a heart that listens.

Because along my journey of listening, I’ve learned that the wisest person in the room isn’t the one who is quickest to answer with the most certainty. Sometimes it’s the person who has learned to listen long enough—to God, to others, and to what is actually happening beneath the surface—to discern what is actually true.

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