Listening to Love

It's been said that a writer needs an elevator speech and a Christian needs a 3 minute testimony.  I am a failure at both.  I've never been good at brevity.  My words and thoughts tumble over top of each other like earthworms in a jar of dirt.  I get so excited to tell a punch line that I mess up the details of a joke.  I just can't answer a question simply.  I feel like I have to give someone the whole story in one sitting.  And the problem is that I rarely get to my point.

This is why writing is my preferred communication.  I can type away, always knowing that backspacing and spell check can erase my mistakes.  The printed page can take my disorganized thoughts and put them together constructively over time.  I don't have to balance conversation or allow for interruptions while I am in the midst of expressing myself.

I am learning though that what I hear is far more important than what I say.  When I really listen, I gain amazing insight.  I learn that the world is not about me.  That really I know very little about life other than the small window open to me.  Through other's words I audibly "see" into their hearts.  I hear pain, joy, pride, need and worth.  I see people as Jesus sees them, as made in His image.  And this stretches me because my world is about me most of the time.  And that is ugly.  I learn that loving your neighbor as yourself is not an easy thing but Scripture says that the world will know who I am by my love.  And without that love, I am nothing.

Writing the thoughts of my heart is still my passion but communication is only as good as what motivates it.  And I can't spell check or backspace love.