Intuitive Listening
I am connected to you, and you to me, in a way that’s bigger and more intrinsic than our our similarities or our differences. How? We won’t know the answer to this question until we share our stories.
Intuitive Listening.
Listening well, in either storytelling or in really tough conversations, can be difficult. The overwhelming impulse when listening is to react and to speak. Just listening – that's much more difficult.
“…Half-eared listening, says Bonhoeffer, despises the brother and is only waiting for a chance to speak and thus get rid of the other person…”
What is intentional listening? Maybe an overly simple definition is a good listener starts by getting out of their own head and away from personal perceptions, biases, and ideas. Next a good listener focuses completely on the speaker, noticing the words, phrasing, and body language. Intentional listeners also note emotions, energy, and depth of thinking.
As I listen with purpose, getting more curious, nudging closer, asking questions that promote more story, I begin to connect. I can become more connected in a way that’s bigger than myself and more primal than our differences.
The power of compassion. Keeping with the 2020 rhythms of Ministry in Motion’s 2020 consider that listening, as a spiritual practice, is worth honoring and honing. There's something besides technique when we deeply listen to each other. It’s an awareness that not only says we are present but that we are to present to something that is spiritual, holy and sacred.
The best ministry, the grandest outreach, the most intentional empathy you might show today could very well be to listen to someone’s story, their concerns and their pain — even all the way to the bottom...#pkes