THE LAST RIVER MILE

Elaine (my wife) and I volunteer once a week at a thrift store in our community which is operated by an international not-for-profit organization. The store provides a great benefit for many wonderful people in our area. A good number of people who shop at the store could not buy the items they purchase any other way, because of the continually rising cost of living. It’s humbling and beneficial to us to connect with people who have to find a way to exist near the margins of our society. We have been blessed with friends we would not have met any other way.

While we were working there the other day, an older gentleman (about my age!) passed by me, commenting on the trouble he was having with his vision. So I asked him what was going on with his eyes. Well, I didn’t get any work done for about the next half hour. He want from talking about his eyes, to his age, to his family, to his background, to his work experience, to places he’d been, to people he had met….To to be honest, it kind of became a meandering stream of consciousness, and I pretty much lost track of the trajectory. But it was clear that he just really wanted to talk. Or, more accurately, he just needed someone to listen to him. I got the sense that he doesn’t get that very often.

Really, how often does someone listen – really listen to any of us? In the so-called information age, when we are bombarded by data 24/7, who or what ever contacts us and just wants to listen to us? In this time when we are talking at each other, talking past each other, and shouting at each other, less and less listening is going on. For many, such as the guy in the thrift store the other day, that’s very painful. Not listening to someone essentially says to him/her/them, “You don’t matter.” You may be one of those persons who experiences that horrible pronouncement.

We who claim to follow Jesus have to send a different message. (See Romans 12:9-16.) What would it be like if, in the next conversation I have with someone. I make fewer statements and ask more questions? And then, when I ask the questions, what would it be like if I listened; really, deeply listened?

I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.