Listen

Sifting through some old papers yesterday, I came across this lovely piece; most of us will identify with both speaker and listener.

Listen

When I ask you to listen to me and you start giving advice, you have not done what I ask.

When I ask you to listen to me and you begin to tell me why I should not feel that way, you have trapped my feelings.

When I ask you to listen to me and you feel you have to do something to solve my problem, you have failed me, strange as that may seem.

Listen! All I ask, is that you listen, not talk or do – just listen and hear me.

I can do for myself! I am not helpless. Maybe discouraged and faltering but not helpless. When you do something for me that I can do for myself, you contribute to my fear and weakness, but when you accept as a simple fact that I do feel what I feel, no matter how irrational, then I can quit trying to convince you and get about the business of understanding what’s behind this irrational feeling and when that’s clear, the answers are obvious and I don’t need advice.

Irrational feelings make sense when we understand them.

Perhaps that is why prayer works sometimes for some people because God is mute and he doesn’t give advice or try to fix things. He just listens and lets you work it out for yourself. So please listen and just hear me and if you want to talk, wait a minute for your turn and I’ll listen to you.

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