Understanding why something makes sense to someone is not the same as agreeing with it. I listen to understand, and as Stephen Covey wrote, then I seek to be understood. If the other person doesn’t feel I understand them and have their best interest at heart, they will not listen to me.
Author: james bruce mcnaughton
I became Seriously Mentally Ill at age 18, ten years later I got and took the right meds, I accepted Jesus, and my recovery began.
I can’t hear you over my talking
Many people that I personally interacted with today are worried about what President-elect Donald Trump will do to them; their relationships, their bodies, their jobs. I didn’t understand until I thought: Would I be concerned about my religious rights and freedom of speech rights if Hillary Clinton had won? I am very scared of the trouble her presidency would have caused me and worried if I would be willing to stay true to Jesus in the face of unknown suffering.
These people are also tired of hearing, “Don’t worry,” “Get over it,” and other mindless remarks by friends, family, etc. that may show they don’t understand, don’t care or both.
What I am trying to do is listen with my heart for their heart. We are all people and we all have a story. If I interrupt, judge, give advice am I going to hear their story? Do I really just want to hear myself talk and confirm to myself how brilliant I am in my own eyes or do I want to discover another beautiful human being and their unique story?
Everyone’s opinion makes sense to them. If I listen long enough they may tell me why they feel the way they do. Today I heard why someone believes in doing something I wouldn’t do. And from their perspective it made sense.
This presidential election proved that most people want to be heard. And “the other side” has feelings and concerns that don’t make sense.
Until you listen.
Does History Repeat Itself?
In an internet article called The Truth About Tytler, Loren Collins cites a quotation whose author(s) she writes are essentially unverified:
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years. Great nations rise and fall. The people go from bondage to spiritual truth, to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back again to bondage.
Regardless of the identity of the the author(s) is there any truth here to learn from?
To oversimplify: Originally Europeans took this land from the indigenous people in an effort to escape persecution and be able to have religious freedom. They found the courage to fight for their liberty and were blessed with abundance. In the late twentieth century selfishness even had its own magazine (Self). Now I suggest we are beyond selfishness. Half the nation says “I got mine, go get your own” and the other half says “I can’t get my own, I want yours.” And while we are complacent and apathetic about spending money we don’t have we are also in denial about the national debt and its consequences (over $60,000 per citizen, over $160,000 per taxpayer – U.S. National Debt Clock at 1:30 pm November 6, 2016). We are also in denial about our failure to even come up with a way to enforce a balanced budget.
From the limited perspective of U.S. history I have given, the quotation seems to track our country’s progress. Can we turn it around? I believe the answer is yes. And I think only Jesus can do it. He said that if we Jesus followers will humble ourselves and pray, seeking Him then He will heal our country.
I’m going to humble myself and pray:
Dear Jesus, please forgive us and heal us.
How ’bout you?
I AM for You! 