The Best Thing!!

‘Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behaviour from their parents.’ [Ephesians 5:1 MSG]

I was thinking the other day about the best thing ever said to me during my working life. It has to have been (after being presented with the possibility of a significant change in the workplace) hearing the words, “I don’t want you to answer right now. Go home, take time to process it and let me know what you think tomorrow “

This was significant in a number of ways. An answer was not required, in fact not even wanted immediately. It wasn’t the usual, ‘ Think about it and let me know your answer by tomorrow.’ Nor was I simply being asked for a yes or no answer, input was requested. Here was somebody who I had not for very long yet managed to know me better than I knew myself. Who  obviously knew that if put on the spot I would answer probably in the negative!

Usually it is only family or close friends from whom we expect that kind of knowledge. When we encounter it from someone who we hardly know, we are taken aback. How did they know to do or say what they did? I suspect they had spent many years being present in the moment with those around them. They had learned to really listen, not only to what was said but also what wasn’t said.

The reason that this made such an impression on me is two-fold. First, it told me that who I was and how I operated was important to someone else.  It is only in retrospect that I realize if they were able to do that for me, then I should be able to do the same for other people too. That by being present in the moment I too can pick up clues as to how the other person operates.

Secondly, it reminded me of a reading from the Psalms. Sound familiar? It should if you are at all familiar with the portion of Psalm 139 quoted below. From the first time I heard this Psalm read in church as a child, this particular part had stayed with me..

‘Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
    you formed me in my mother’s womb…
You know me inside and out,
    you know every bone in my body;’ [Psalm 139:13-14 MSG]

This is how the psalmist saw God, and according to the writer of Ephesians I quoted at the beginning, that then applies to everyone. 

We are all like an open book to those who know how to read us, to those who are interested enough to observe and to listen, to be in the present. But much more importantly, we all have that same ability to know those with whom we come in contact equally well. Don’t you find that just little bit daunting?