Following On

About 15 years ago, I happened to attend a lecture given by a survivor of World War II. At that time he was a very old man and was telling about being held prisoner by the Japanese.  It might have been a very good story; in fact, I think it probably was. He told about some of the brutality of his Japanese captors. He told about how the war just suddenly ended. He told about walking across this twisted, strange landscape and later learned that he was walking across the dying lands that had been destroyed by the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki.

But honestly, he was very hard to listen to. His voice would get loud and then it would get very soft.  He would ramble on and on about uninteresting things that mattered only to him. He would get lost on rabbit trails and then 10 minutes later finally find his way back to the story again. I kept thinking to myself, “There’s a good story here if you’ll just stick it out.” I was never so glad for a speech to end, while at the same time feeling sort of honored to be among those sharing in this man’s journey.

At the end of his lecture, he said four words - and it was these words, “Thank you for listening.”  I think he meant, ‘Thank you for spending your time listening to some foolish old man.’ I think he meant, ‘Thank you for listening to these things that are important to me.’ I think he meant ‘Thank you for allowing me to share something that might change you and make you different down the road.’

In Ephesians chapter 1, Paul writes to the church at Ephesus in verse 15, “… ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,  I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.”  Essentially Paul is saying, “Thanks for listening to a message that will make you different,” because by listening they were becoming coworkers in the gospel with him.

So today, stop and tell the people around you, “Thank you for listening; thank you for helping; thank you for understanding and thank you for giving your precious time to me.” A well placed “thank you” might be worth a hundred, “because I said so’s,” don’t you think?