Filed under: Daily Living, Friends, God, Leadership, Ministry, Prayer, Relationships, Religion
For some reason people seemed to want to tell me things yesterday that I felt I had no business knowing. A dude at work went into exhausting detail about his weekend. There were some crazy and terribly sad things that happened to him this weekend and I guess he just wanted to talk to someone. The thing is I can’t remember a time that we have said more than four words to each other in the two-plus years I have been working with him. Needless to say, I was a bit surprised by his frankness and I am saddened by what happened to him.
Last night was a little different. My wife and I had an appointment at a place that was near the place of work of someone we kind of know. We were a little early so we stopped in and said hi. Now this is a man that I know is going through some junk but I didn’t know how bad it really is. He told us the things he is going through without going into a lot of detail. My heart hurt so badly for him because I know he has tried to open up to me before. I don’t know if I was closed to the opportunity or responsibility of knowing what I know now but I just never gave him the opportunity to talk to me.
As I was writing the previous paragraph another coworker came up and told me about some issues he is having at home. He went into detail too. Sheesh! At least I actually know this guy.
I don’t know why I am writing about this. I guess God is training me to be a good listener or something but my flesh doesn’t want the responsibility of knowing things like this. My flesh doesn’t want the responsibility of having to pray for these people. I just want to live in my private little “David World”. However, God wants me to listen and pray for these people. God wants me to set me selfishness aside and actually listen when people talk instead of faking it.
So, does this kind of thing happen to you? If so, what do you do about it?
