The Daily Word

There used to be a lovely lady who went to Airedale Gospel Hall whom I had a great respect for. Her name is not important, as names rarely are, and when we greeted one another as friends and asked the usual question, ‘How are you?’, she sometimes answered, ‘do you really want to know or are you just being  polite?’ She then indicated that many people didn’t actually listen to the answer and then just said something like, ‘Oh, good’ and moved on to the next person.

It indicates the difference between hearing and listening, because whilst they involve the same organ of reception, the ear, listening has brain input, whereas hearing mostly involves just noise.

A verse in that most practical guidebook of James says this, “Let everybody be quick to listen…”. Too often we don’t devote enough time to listening and there is only one thing worse than speaking to someone and effectively seeing their eyes and ears glaze over, and that is to be the one who is NOT actually listening!!

If we really love and respect our brothers and sisters in the Lord, then we should take James’ words to heart. We may not subsequently actually remember what was said, but we have taken an interest and listened instead of just hearing and who knows, something might stick and become a prayer item to support someone in need.

Article written by Brian Preston, Elder @SFGH Church