Listening

People are so busy these days that a constant complaint often heard is that nobody seems to listen.  Often a person is speaking about something that really is important, but the listener, by his body language and shifting eyes, gives the infallible impression that he isn't paying attention. Or a person begins to speak about their family  or their inner problems when their listener immediately begins to talk at length about themselves. Some people have the ability to spend a long conversation talking solely about what concerns them. 


Perhaps the most common complaint that wives make to their husbands is this, "I don't want you to rush and sort out the problem; I just want you to listen to me and truly hear me." 


I have found an excellent quotation written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer while he was running a sort of illegal seminary in Finkenwalde in the Baltic region.

LISTENING

The first service that one owes to others in the fellowship consists in listening to them. Just as love to God begins with listening to His Word, so the beginning of love for the brethren is learning to listen to them. It is God's love for us that He not only gives us His Word but also lends us His ear. So it is His work that we do for our brother when we learn to listen to him. Christians, especially ministers, so often think they must always contribute something when they are in the company of others, that this is the one service they have to render. They forget that listening can be a greater service than speaking.

Many people are looking for an ear that will listen. They do not find it among Christians, because these Christians are talking where they should be listening. But he who can no longer listen to his brother will soon be no longer listening to God either; he will be doing nothing but prattle in the presence of God too. This is the beginning of the death of the spiritual life, and in the end there is nothing left but spiritual chatter and clerical condescension arrayed in pious words. One who cannot listen long and patiently will presently be talking beside the point and be never really speaking to others, albeit he be not conscious of it. Anyone who thinks that his time is too valuable to spend keeping quiet will eventually have no time for God and his brother, but only for himself and for his own follies.