Listening

An English professor, once shared an experience of a teacher who changed her life during high school. She says the classroom in which her teacher was teaching was located on the side of the building where a main thoroughfare of the city ran. Traffic was constant, including the sound of emergency vehicles, throughout each day. At the beginning of each class, the teacher would complain to the students about the noise from the traffic. The emergency vehicles especially annoyed him with their sirens.

After one weekend, the teacher addressed the class at the beginning as he usually did. This day he said he wanted to apologize to the class. He told them that this weekend his wife had an emergency situation. The service that the ambulance provided saved his wife's life and his baby's life. He told his students, "I want to apologize because I was listening to the noise instead of thinking about the lives."

In his external world, the teacher heard noise. The experience with his wife and child caused him to inwardly see that lives were being cared for by those noisy vehicles.

We are called to listen differently to all of creation and God. There is no doubt that noise has invaded our lives. Some can’t shower without music or go to sleep without the TV in the background. All this noise is simply noise. We must go deeper we must go inward. That is where we will find truth.


NOTE: The story about the English professor was shared by, Rev. Dr. Isaiah Jones Jr.