The sometimes soft spoken woman was seated in a room with all male prisoners sitting at tables with their loved ones and friends. Each table had no more than 4 chairs, 1 for the inmate and 3 for the visitors. At one side of the room where she was seated were food and beverage machines accompanied by a microwave; the same lined the wall where she first entered. The inmate that was seated at her table had finished eating the food that was brought to him by two of the three ladies that had also come with her to visit. As she sat there across from him with two of the women, she listened to him speak while trying hard to tune out past habits of searching for how to respond. In response to a question from one of the other ladies with her, he said, “I have some doubts and confusion about God…” The soft spoken woman listened intensely as he seemed to struggle in explaining what was going on inside of him and his desire to live honestly in whatever beliefs he would hold to for his life. The other ladies chimed in at certain points during his explaining. It wasn’t before long that she broke her silence, “You’re concerned about your identity…you think that you’re going to lose who you are…” She tried to hide the uncomfortable feeling that arose in her in response to his sudden outburst of laughter. She nervously laughed, shrugged her shoulders and mumbled, “Sorry, I just said what I thought…” She hadn’t intended to make an assessment of what he was feeling; it just came out. But one of the ladies almost seemed shocked, catching on to his laughter, “Naw…that’s it. He’s laughing because you hit his issue right on the head.” It was true. His conversation took a totally different direction into just a little bit more transparency.
Aren’t you grateful for people that will just take the time to let you say what you want to say without trying to make you feel the way they think you should feel? Don’t you hate when people just want to rush you along in what you’re trying to get out into the open, or prejudging what they think you are trying to say? Aren’t you grateful that there is at least one person (I hope) that you don’t have to worry about raining hell and brimstone down on you because you are being honest about what’s in your heart? We really do want other people to help us but honestly most just aren’t equipped to listen long enough to hear what’s going on in us that we ourselves aren’t even aware that is going on. Even if you only have God that listens to every care of your heart and walks you through how to change your way of thinking, be thankful that you have Him. And if you’ve been blessed with the skill to actively listen, not “just hear” sounds, thank God for that! The secretly hurting and spiritually dying people around you need you.
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