I was with my friend last week as she attended all the pre-op appointments/meetings in preparation for her upcoming surgery. I was particularly moved by the meeting with the surgeon who will be performing the surgery. He is obviously a very skilled and important person. He obviously is very busy and has a lot of important things going on. Yet, when he entered the room to meet with us, he was 100% there for us!
As both my friend and I reached out our hand to shake his, he clasped our hand in both of his with the warmest of greetings. He was not rushed. He was not in a hurry. He did not give any indication that we were an inconvenience to his busy schedule.
But rather he was 100% engaged in the moment. He valued my friend. Her concerns were important to him. He was very interested in hearing her questions.
He took the time.
He listened … completely!
I was very moved by this experience.
There are very few situations in life where people are actually interested in us. There are very few situations where people are actually 100% engaged when communicating with us. There are very few situations in life where I don’t feel like a burden or inconvenience to someone else when trying to interact or communicate.
For the most part, everyone in life is distracted! They’ve got more important things to do than listen to us.
When we talk, most of the time people are only half paying attention. Thinking about something else … while at the same time listening.
But not this surgeon.
Isn’t this the way we all wish it would be when we interact and communicate with others.
We can tell how much someone truly cares simply by how they listen.
If we truly love someone, we will value them so much that we will listen completely when they talk.
When people talk … listen completely.
“My dear friends, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak.” – James 1:19
