It is a point in life to seek to understand where the other person is coming from.
That doesn’t take just sitting and listening to what is being said. That take active engagement in the conversation to further draw out the content and underlying concepts at place in what’s being delivered.
There was an occasion once where I witnessed two people having a conversation about the food order to be delivered to a dignitary. The first person was talking animatedly to the second person. Although the second person nodded as though he understood, there was a look in his eyes that clearly revealed he did not have a clue. The first person carried on regardless, gesturing and gesticulating in the thought that this was reinforcing his instruction. The second person went away, came back later with a tray to head to the dignitary. It wasn’t long before he was going back where he came from with the same tray and when the first person saw it … well it’s fair to say his complexion turned the colour of some of the things that were on the tray. The words he uttered were likewise morsels for a required rough taste.
Just because we are saying something and just because we get seeming nods of approval and understanding, it’s always worth discovering if true understanding has taken place. Especially if you’re supposed to be in something together. Are you really saying the same thing? Are you on the same page? Are you even in the same book?
Failure in this area is not just embarrassing, it can be really tragic. Two people purporting to be on the same side apparently supporting the same cause, saying completely different things that proves to be more divisive than unifying. Tragic.
It really does leave onlookers wondering if they are even talking about the same thing.
(Photo by Chris Liverani on Unsplash)
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
Life With CD 