Listening versus hearing

Most of my career moves have placed me in vocations where it was essential to listen.  Not listening could have dire results if I didn't hear as well.  Take for instance the situation where you are talking to someone who has a deer in the headlights look on their face.  Nobody hearing there.  How about your child listening to you chatter (what he/she actually hears) on about how they should be nicer to their sibling.  They may be listening but they aren't hearing.  Here's a good one; how about listening to a politician?  Yes, we listen but first and foremost we have a stereotype of the politician that tells us to not hear their pleas.  Crying wolf is a common outcome of the "I can't hear you." syndrome.  Often we come into a conversation with our hearing conditioned to hear only what we want to hear.  We bring our prejudices and biases along with our selective social upbringing.  I was once in the deep south and after talking for a couple of minutes the person I was talking with said, "You sure have a funny accent."  He didn't hear a thing I said.  He listened to my voice and determined that I had a "funny accent" but nothing further.  Some people have vocations where they are public speakers.  For instance teachers, preachers, medical professionals, professors, and the list could go on and on.  The responsibility that they carry to the podium is great.  Dwight Moody, the great revivalist preacher, was preaching in Chicago one evening.  The Spirit was moving amongst the people and at the end of the service Reverend Moody told the audience he was not going to give an altar call but that they should go home, search their hearts and tomorrow night give their lives to Christ.  That night would be disastrous with the Great Chicago Fire that took many lives.  Reverend Moody made the decision right then that he would never preach again without providing the people time to give their lives to Christ.  Speaking to an audience who are listening and hearing is a great responsibility.  There are consequences that come about when we don't have an audience that first is listening, second hearing and finally responding.  Salesmen and women are seen to be the bottom of the bottom right next to lawyers.  Car salesmen and women, lawyers and politicians come close to those who have a motive other than your best interests.  We come with a preconceived idea that these people will do anything to win, get their way, defeat others and in order that their wants and needs are granted.  Should I come up to you and say, "Hi, I'm Steve and I'm a Christian." you shift gears in your listening and hearing.  How about, "Hi, I'm Steve and I'm a police officer."  Another stereotype.  Maybe, "Hi, I'm Steve and I'm a mortician."  You get the picture.  Outside of, "Hi, I'm Steve." people shift their listening and hearing to fit what they know or have experienced.  It's like the game where one person whispers to another person a sentence and that person passes it on until the statement comes full circle.  It's often nothing like what started.  My speaking (or typing) is valuable most of the time.  I don't always listen and hear as well as I should.  Anyone else have that problem?  One last criteria I'd like to discuss is our level of respect for the speaker as well as the subject matter.  How can we become listeners that hear when we don't respect someone.  It's not a secret.  We can filter what they say, how they say it, and why they say what they do. I can listen and hear others even though I am diametrically opposed to what they believe.  Listening and hearing don't automatically mean I have to "buy in" or subject myself to an idea or thought I disagree with.  I'd like us to think about one final dilemma.  How we listen and how we hear dictates how we speak and vice versa.  Jesus has provided us with the example of how to be consistent in both worlds.  He came representing all that the Father desired that we the people should hear.  When he spoke, some listened and some didn't.  Jesus told us to bring the Gospel to all the world.  Is your and my world listening AND hearing with action as a result?  When we submit to the Holy Spirit we are now representing God in all things.  When I don't submit to the Holy Spirit all people hear is Steve.  Today I will try to listen and hear from God's point of view.  I won't be perfect at it but I will try.