You need to listen. Truly. And true listening means empathizing.

It means putting yourself, your mind, heart, and soul, into another person’s entirely different perspective. Climbing outside the windows of your own eyes is the first step to really engaging in the context of the person you are hearing. Leave behind your own agenda, your tight schedule, your opportunistic abuse of people (which is all too common—forgive us, Lord). Ask God to give you the power of empathy to truly understand and feel the joys and sorrows this person is conveying whether consciously or not. Next you must focus not entirely on the words your person is using. Sense the emotion, the givens, the surprises, the instincts, and the passions. By doing this and putting yourself aside you may begin to receive in a clear way, and in a way Jesus might have received, an understanding of the woes and delights that are so real to this soul standing before you. This depth of discernment of another person is the beginning of the mission. It all starts with finding out how exactly the Gospel is changing or will begin changing this person’s life for Christ and His mission, which has beautifully become our mission.

Lauren