Listening

"I'd rather forget and not slow down

Than gather regret for the things I can't change now

If I become what I cannot accept,

Resurrect the saint from within the wretch ..."

Relient K, 'Forget and Not Slow Down', 2009

I've learnt a few things about listening in recent times (some more recent than others):

1. The methods I employ to get my husband to listen to me really don't work so well - especially when he has headphones in his ears so much of the time anyway.

2. I often try and multitask at work - I will listen to someone on the phone whilst I'm trying to read e-mails or do some other kind of work at the same time. Generally I think I'm ok at multitasking, but I can't do it in this circumstance, and I lose chunks of conversation (during this time you will hear me saying 'yes' or 'wow' or some other non descript words). I have to concentrate on the traffic outside the window or something else in order to really listen to the person on the phone.

3. I can often be engrossed in a conversation with someone, something that they will ponder for days afterwards, which I can walk away from and almost instanteous archive it in my brain until they bring it up again. Ironically, the idea for this post came from one of the few occasions where that didn't happen ....

('When was that?' - I hear you asking)

... Lately I've been having an ongoing conversation with a colleague on the day when we leave our current business and embark on a new challenge, which (dare I say it) has been a joy and an inspiration, although as you might expect I am a little hesitant to jump in. It occurred to me last Sunday though (when we looked at some principles of listening to God's word and its priority in our life from Luke) that I spend so much time listening to and involving myself in and having conversations about worldly priorities (such as those I share with my colleague), and as a result God is just off the radar. That needs to be reversed! I need to differentiate worldly and heavenly priorities in what I listen to, and beyond for that matter.

I'm really going to need help with this if the traits I've outlined above are anything to go by.