Hurry Up And WAIT!

In a world of instant - well, everything - how are we expected to listen? Not hear - but listen. A couple struggling to hold their marriage together, teens who take their lives, racial wars, religious injustice, the list goes on and on.  What would our world, our communities, and our homes look like if we just slowed down long enough to listen to both the spoken and the unspoken words?

Years ago when my girls were small, they had a bus driver - an older woman who never seemed very happy with her job. She dutifully made her stops on time.  Every morning as those yellow doors flung open, I'd try to greet her eyes with a smile and wave, but she could barely raise her hand to respond. I quickly labeled her CRANKY. One day when I mentioned this to a friend of mine, whose stop was right after mine, she gently said "Linda, we don't always know what others are going through" and proceeded to tell me the woman's story.

Our bus driver's husband had cancer. She awoke every morning to clean and feed him before she began her route. After her two rounds of morning stops, she'd head back home to relieve the nurse and would proceed to wash and dress her husband, do the laundry, and cook dinner. A few hours later, the nurse returned and she ran back out to take on the after-school activities/sports run for extra cash. Suddenly I could think of so many other adjectives for this woman, and CRANKY wasn't one of them.

That moment changed things. That moment changed me. I've borrowed my friend's words and passed her sage advice onto others, including my children - yes, we never know what others are going through. We need to listen with the ears of our hearts. As our world becomes less physically engaged, we lose the ability to read people's body language. We hurry to respond with advice before one is even finished with their sentence. We miss the unspoken hurt, injustice, or loneliness. I think the art of listening is a gift; a ministry - one that everyone is qualified for.

The rule in my house is no cell phones at the dinner table! It is the one precious moment of the day where heart drop moments can occur. We listen to the moments of one another's day and see where God is calling us to serve, love, and support. I find the car to be another one of those places where we have one another's attention.  Aren't these the opportunities to turn off the outside noise and open up the ears of our hearts?

Today, be mindful of one of those listening moments and share with me your story. Let's end our week sharing stories of hope and goodness that can, even for a brief moment, quiet the noise of the world around us.

Now hurry up......and go listen!