Echo

My Dad called me tonight . . . and there was this echo in the phone. This made communication really difficult. He would speak and I would respond, and after a couple of seconds, I would hear my own voice echo back to me.

This is not a pretty thing. I already have a phone timing challenge - as I will a lot of times find myself stepping on toes while trying to carry on a phone conversation. I will either speak too soon or wait too long, and the communication gets all garbled.

It's kind of like when you are walking towards somebody, and then both of you choose to move in the same direction, trying to get out of one another's way - only to block each other. Then there is this awkward apology, as you either stand still or continue the same rhythm. This phone charade is the same kind of thing.

After tolerating the echo for a few sentences, I asked my Dad to call me back. After a minute or two he was back on the line without the echo.

"Much better," I said.

Hearing my own phone voice was kind of annoying . . . the person I really wanted to hear was my Dad. His laughter, his responses - not my own.

I got to thinking about how communicating with somebody can sometimes get all twisted up. As I sometimes try and interject my point of view, I will awkwardly try and move from one side to the other, and eventually an impasse occurs. Have I really heard what the other person said, or am I listening to the echo of my own point of view?

I am going to think about that one for a while. Being a true friend sometimes means setting your selfishness aside to care for the needs of someone else. That can mean letting go of my need to be heard, and all of my own interests - even my own hurts.

I'd like to add, that letting go of hurts is not an easy thing. When we've been wounded, there is a part of us that wants to be validated - and for things to somehow be made right. But as I have walked along side of God through some pretty rough communication patches - He is teaching me that the "making things right" is all up to Him.

Lord, help me to be a better communicator - a better friend. May the echo of my selfishness be drowned out, as I strain to hear the heart of another. I long to be a better listener . . .

so that when I do bump into another - love prevails.