Every relationship of depth requires listening—real listening, the kind that sets aside assumptions and enters the world of the other. This is true of friendships, of marriages, and especially of our relationship with Scripture.

If you love someone but never learn to hear them on their own terms—if you constantly project your expectations onto their words, filter their meaning through your own moment, and skip past whatever feels unfamiliar—you will inevitably misunderstand them.

Worse, you will misunderstand them while believing you know them well. The distortion will masquerade like intimacy and at some point the illusion will come uncomfortably crashing down.