“You’re Not Listening”

A couple of paragraphs into the guy’s conversation and it was obvious he didn’t know what he wanted or needed. When I tried to narrow down the scope of his problem he snapped at me and said, “You’re not listening!” This actually took me back for a moment. I’m not impervious to anger and I could feel my face flush. A funny thing happened though, I shut up and let him talk on and on. Finally he asked me if I was still there, to which I replied, “Yes, I’m listening.”

I have many conversations like this due to the nature of my job but today this caught my attention. It made me think about how often our problems probably can’t be solved by someone at the end of a phone, but what if you are the only one in that moment to offer any hope of a possible solution?

The guy actually tagged me pretty good, because I only wanted specific details and he wanted to tell a tale beyond what I required. In the end I couldn’t help him with what he needed which is what I had surmised from the very beginning. Instead, he helped me learn something more about the hearts of people. In every situation we need hope and someone to really listen to what we are troubled about. However major, however minor, we are hoping for someone who really cares.

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