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Listen, for I have worthy things to say... Prov. 8:6

    My family got me some noise cancelling headphones for Christmas. They are incredible. They cancel out most of the “white noise” and background level noise when I put on the headphones. They work whether or not I’m listening to music!

    These headphones are especially great on plane flights. Passengers have to talk above the whine, whir, and fuzz of the white noise around them. When I put on the headphones, most of that background noise goes away and I can hear conversations all around me very clearly. The voices are loud and distinct. I can hear people four or five rows away and understand their every word. Incredible!

    Now if I could just have something like that for my everyday conversations. So much gets lost in the background noise of distractions, too much to do, assumed meanings, and bad timing.

    Anyone with Basic Communication 101 in college can tell you that “noise” is one of the key factors that disrupts good communication of any kind. But where do we get good “noise cancelling” technology to help us communicate with our spouse, children, parents, friends, and co-workers when this kind of noise is an issue of heart and not headphones! How about a couple of key strategies?

• Commitment to Hear and Understand

  The biggest part of cutting out the noise in our listening is a commitment to both hear and understand. I have trouble distinguishing what is said from background noise. Unfortunately after I’ve asked “What?” or “Pardon?” several times, I just nod my head and pretend I heard what was said. My pride and laziness gets in the way of my truly hearing. Hearing through the “noise” around us takes effort. Listening is hard work if we want to understand what was in the heart of the person when the words were spoken.

• Valuing the Person Speaking

  Listening also means valuing the person speaking to us and giving that person our fullest attention. The people with whom we are most familiar are often the very people we don’t give our most earnest attention. We assume we know what that person is going to say. We assume that we can “half listen” and if there is some issue or word that triggers a response, then we engage our listening skills at a more focused level. But “half listening,“or “filtered listening” as it is sometimes called, is not listening at all. To listen to another, we must focus our full attention on that person and away from the other things around us.

• Spiritual Commitment and Power

  Finally, good listening is a spiritual commitment. If God values each word I speak to him and knows every careless word I say, then I had better value another person’s words the same way he does mine. I never know when someone may be at a critical point in his or her life and the words about to be spoken may be my only opportunity to offer a life-changing touch of grace.

Good listening is a spiritual commitment.

    How important is good listening? Does it matter to God if we “filter out the white noise” and truly listen? The word “listen” is used over 420 times in the NIV Bible and the word “hear” is used over 1130 times. Yes, many of those times are about properly hearing the Lord’s word. Many others, however, are about truly listening to each other.

    So let’s each say a prayer today about becoming a better listener. Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to help us filter out the noise and empower us to become good listeners to the people in our lives. I am confident that we will be amazed how much more clearly we are able to hear those around us. It’s amazing how much better we can all hear when we employ a little heavenly noise cancelling technology!

My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry... James 1:19