The Telephone

I have just hung up; why did he telephone? I don’t know…O! I get it…I talked a lot and listened little.

Forgive me, Lord, it was a monologue and not a dialogue. I explained my idea and did not get his; Since I didn’t listen, I learned nothing, Since I didn’t listen, I didn’t help, since I didn’t listen, we didn’t communicate.

Forgive me, Lord, for we were connected, and now we are cut off.”

This piece really convicted me because I have not been a good listener. There is a restless tendency in me that causes me to be distracted and not to listen attentively, especially in a crowded space, gathering, etc. I want to be a better listener. Someone who is at least as concerned about someone else’s thoughts as my own. I want to communicate, to hear the person speaking to me. I want to give them eye contact and heart contact. Help me Lord not to hang up without listening, helping, communicating. Forgive me for allowing distractions to keep me from caring. Forgive me Lord for not loving my neighbor as myself.

I Peter 1:22 (NIV) “Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.”

The Harper Collins Book of Prayers, comp. by Robert Van de Weyer (New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1993)

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