Love and Listening

James 1:19 - My beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.

Some reflections on listening:

1. Listening causes us to slow down and take a servants position. It places others needs before our own. Of all the forms of non-verbal communication, listening is one of the most powerful ways to communicate "I love you".

2. All great leaders are great listeners. Think about great leaders you have had in your life. I would bet that you would also find them to be great listeners. Why did you respect them and want to follow them? Probably one of the biggest reasons would be because they communicated "I love you" through listening.

3. Listening may be one of the most powerful, yet underrated approaches to evangelism. Since listening communicates real love, it may be one powerful tool in evangelism. Francais Shaeffer was noted as saying that when we wanted to share the gospel with someone, if he only had an hour, he would love that person enough to listen for 55 minutes of that hour in order to give that person in 5 minutes what they really needed to hear.

4. Listening can defuse and argument very quickly. Often times working in the church, I would have someone approach me with some issue about my guitar being too loud or whatever in terms of the church. If I would just calmly listen to what they had to say and not be defensive and then repeat back what I was hearin them say, by the end of the conversation they were usually saying, "Thank you so much for listening to me and hearing my concerns." I didn't even have to say that I agreed or would make any changes!

Listening is hard. It takes mental work to not rehearse what you want to say while someone else is talking. But people really get the sense that you are listening to them you become attractive and winsome and probably will have a more unrestricted path to the gospel in their lives.