Active Listening

First Samuel records the establishment of Israel’s monarchy, about 1050 B.C. Samuel led Israel for many years in the combined roles of prophet, priest, and judge.

1 Samuel 3 (ESV)

Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli. And the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision.

At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his own place. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was.

4. Then the Lord called Samuel, and he said, “Here I am!” and ran to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call; lie down again.” So he went and lay down.

And the Lord called again, “Samuel!” and Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.” Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.

And the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down, and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.’ ” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

And the Lord came and stood, calling as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant hears.” Then the Lord said to Samuel, “Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. And I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever.”

Samuel lay until morning; then he opened the doors of the house of the Lord. And Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. But Eli called Samuel and said, “Samuel, my son.” And he said, “Here I am.” And Eli said, “What was it that he told you? Do not hide it from me. May God do so to you and more also if you hide anything from me of all that he told you.” So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. And he said, “It is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him.”

And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established as a prophet of the Lord. And the Lord appeared again at Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord.

Samuel was willing to serve

Samuel was actively listening

Samuel was courageously obedient

One of the medical experts Chris Hemsworth meets on Limitless with Chris Hemsworth is BJ Miller, MD, a palliative care physician at the University of California, San Francisco, Cancer Center. In 1990, Miller—then a college sophomore—had to have his lower legs and part of one arm amputated after an electrocution accident. Upon returning to school, he switched his major from international relations to art history. “I wanted to figure out what it means to be human,” he says now. “I was looking at statues from antiquity with arms and legs broken off over the years and realized I wasn't saying, ‘Oh, that was a beautiful statue; too bad it's lost its legs.’ Was I less of a person because I had fewer body parts?”

Ultimately, Miller fell in love with his prosthetic limbs. “I have carbon fiber feet, and they are beautiful,” he says. “I became fascinated with the idea of working with what we have and celebrating the differences.”

Accepting physical decline and other consequences of aging—the concept he shares with Hemsworth on Limitless—is not “giving in or giving up,” Dr. Miller says. “That's often the language around illness— that you're in some battle. But someday we are all going to ‘lose.’ There are many ways to get there, and essentially that's our life's work, all of us.”

Recognize what you can and can't control. “Work on both ends of that dynamic,” says Dr. Miller. “You're not completely powerless, but don't pretend you can control everything.”

Embrace aging. “As we age, our bodies get more vulnerable. But vulnerability is related to strength,” he says. “We are living, human flesh that can be hurt, but we still go on. That's our strength.”

Learn to welcome change. “We are creating and re-creating ourselves all the time. The way I feel about myself is different from when I was 20. We are always changing,” he says. “I have met people who say that when they can no longer read, think, or recognize people, they want to be done. But from observation, there's a lot of life beyond our thoughts. I gain a lot from watching children and being with animals. I don't want to minimize what it is to lose our cognitive function from what we have known it to be, but I do see people go through that and still find joy.”

Discover your resilience. “Look back at the life you've already lived and think of all the things you've lost, from a pet to a lover to a parent. You've had losses and dealt with them and regrouped a million times. You already know a lot about change and loss and appreciation,” Dr. Miller says.

Find inspiration outside yourself. “We will lose our function and die, and this life will end. But that's this one,” Dr. Miller says. “There are zillions of them. Take comfort, joy, and curiosity in the world outside yourself. That's where immortality is, that big life of which you are a part, but just a part.”

Understand the process. Acceptance is gradual and nonlinear, says palliative care specialist James Gordon, MD, FAAN, clinical associate professor of neurology at the University of Washington in Seattle. “I've spent most of my career helping people through the end of life and learning how to transform the rough stuff into something that is at least tolerable. Sometimes it's beautiful, and sometimes it's not.”

Titus 2:1–8 “But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.”