I was Pastor to a dear friend for 30 years. And when you live alongside someone for that amount of time you end up with a lot of interactions. One time I was leaving after our worship service, and he was still inside and I just looked over and said, “Good to see you…how are you doing?” Now this was a guy who was always friendly and positive, but he made no effort to come closer to me and said “Well, I’m not doing very well at all.” I asked him if he wanted to talk and he said that now was not the time, but we were working on a ministry on Wednesday, and he said he would talk to me that day. I prayed and sweated bullets for three days and finally we sat down in my office, and I waited for the bad news. He began to talk about an idea that he had proposed to our leadership team, and they had decided it just wasn’t feasible for right now. He was pretty tense in sharing his feelings and then paused. I took advantage of the opportunity for me to respond, and I said “You know what the problems were that they were concerned with. We put it out there and it got turned down for now.” He was
silent for a moment and then he kind of chuckled and gave me a slight grin and said, “I know there is nothing you can do…I just wanted someone to listen to how I felt.” My friend taught me something that day. So often we are in a hurry to correct or defend or even try to soothe other people. But often…folks just want someone to listen to us without comment. Just listen. God does that for us all the time. The Bible tells us to be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to get angry. You can pour out your heart with all its frustration, confusion and even anger to God…and he will just listen. Because there are times when we just need to be heard. So, remember that there will be times when your correction, instruction or explanation is not needed. Sometimes folks just need someone to love them enough to just listen. Be ready to offer that gift when the time comes. Here’s our Bible verse for today, …
Jamess 1:19 NLT Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.
Remember I’m praying for you…
PJ