“Are You Even Listening To Me?”As part of my job, I have to talk on the phone a lot. It’s not one of my favorite duties, as I am, frankly, not much of a “phone person”. I don’t really enjoy spending time on the phone. I am usually anxious to end a conversation once I have either given or received the information required; I guess I prefer conversing “face-to-face”. If a phone conversation goes on for too long, I admit, my mind will start to wander; I’ll be distracted by something else in the office, or with plans I have for later in the day. I think we have all had those types of phone calls, haven’t we? Here is how they usually go: you have been talking for a while, all the important information has been exchanged, and now it’s just chit-chat; gradually your mind starts to wander, and you start listening less and less; you will throw in the occasional “uh-huh” and “hmm”, just to make them think you are paying attention. And THEN it happens: they ask you a question. “So what do you think?” they ask. Naturally, you have no idea what to say because you have not been listening at all, so you cannot offer an informed response. Now you have a choice to make: are you honest and confess that you haven’t been listening, or do you try and fake it, giving as non-committal an answer as possible, and hope you make it sound convincing? I oftentimes choose the latter. Who wants to get caught not paying attention? Who wants to admit that they were thinking of other things when they shouldn’t have been? Who would want to admit to being inconsiderate? So I fake it. We probably ALL do this, at least sometimes. We gamble, and if the ploy works, we can fool the other person, and avoid embarrassment, can’t we? But sometimes it doesn’t work. Sometimes the other person knows full well that you have no idea what you are saying; they know that you haven’t been listening at all. I imagine most of us have been on THAT end of the conversation several times, too, haven’t we? It is not a good feeling when you know that you are not being listened to. I wonder: is that the way God feels all the time? He must look down everyday onto an entire world of people who aren’t listening, but acting like they are; people calling themselves His children, and not really acknowledging Him as their Father. He looks down onto a world that He has invested so much in [John 3:16], and not seeing any return on that investment; not even a passing interest. Think how upsetting and frustrating it is for us when we feel we are not being respected, listened to, regarded with consideration. We all have a desire to be heard, a desire to be listened to; because, let’s face it, our thoughts are valuable: people need to hear what we have to say! Do you think God feels any differently? We know from scripture that he desires us to seek Him [Acts 17:26-28], and we also learn from scripture that listening is the key to wisdom [Proverbs 19:20-21]. We also can read for ourselves that God has promised to reward those who seek Him and listen to His Word [Hebrews 11:6]. So if this is all true, why do we still not listen attentively? Why do we focus on other things, not really paying strict attention? Why do we try and fool God into thinking we are hearing him? Whenever we try, we fool only ourselves. Unlike our day to day conversations, God’s conversation with us through his Word is vital information. This information is necessary for our salvation; necessary to avoid eternal torment. Let’s all start being better listeners and better Christians, and in doing so, we will be able to help others as well as ourselves. God and His Son paid it all for us, and I think we can all afford to pay a little something ourselves. So let’s start paying by paying some attention. — Paul Seely, October 16, 2011 |