Are you listening? When I was in 1st grade my teacher at school recommended that my parents take me to an audiologist to have my hearing tested. She was convinced that I had a hearing loss. And so, I found myself in the little booth wearing a pair of headphones and the instructions to raise my right or left hand whenever I heard something. At the end of the test, the audiologist told my parents that my hearing was fine…I just had a listening problem. “ Know this, my beloved brothers and sisters: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger…” James 1:19 These days, I find that a lot of us have listening problems. We are so busy thinking, or distracted by what we are doing, that we fail to really listen. We do it at work with our colleagues…at home with our loved ones…and in our community with our friends and neighbors. For many of us, listening is challenging because we want to be heard too. Our intentions may be good. We start out listening…but soon we find ourselves telling our story or giving our opinion. (I have a friend who uses the acronym WAIT: “Why am I talking?” to help him listen.) So many people today are desperate for some one to hear them…to truly listen to what they are saying. Most of them aren’t looking for someone to fix something or solve a problem. They just want to be heard. Maybe you are one of those who just wants some one to hear you out; to listen to your story. Our scriptures remind us over and over that God is one who hears and listens. Not only that, he invites us to cry out to him. We are encouraged to pour our hearts out to God. (The Psalms are a great example of people crying out to God.) And our scriptures also invite us to listen, just as God does…to not turn our backs to those who cry out to us as well. We often say that we are the hands and feet of Christ in this world. Maybe we need to his ears as well…to be those who show the love of Jesus...by listening. Blessings, Matthew+ For those who want to work on being better listeners I encourage you to check out the Active Listening course offered later in this newsletter. | 
