Listen. Pretty please, listen
Listen. Do you mind if I share a pet peeve?
Because I had a day off, I had the chance to listen to the sermons of six different preachers today. Each of them holds preaching ministry positions and their sermons are broadcast on radio waves across the country; some around the world. Several of them hold advanced graduate degrees. All of them have sermons available online at their websites.
All six of the preachers used an over-abundance of these words and phrases: listen, listen now, now listen, watch this, and hear me now. Some used it once or twice a lengthy paragraph; others used it almost every sentence. The phrases became as annoying as a speaker whose nervousness prompts him or her to fill every wisp of silence with an umm or an uhm.
Are you afraid that I am not listening, or are you really afraid that you aren’t saying anything worth listening to?
i am here for a reason – to listen
When I take the time out of my schedule – which often can be quite hectic – to attend an event with a speaker, I attend with the intention of listening. Whether the speech is broadcast or presented live, I would not be there if I did not want to listen. I could easily be somewhere else.
As a speaker, you need to understand that I may multi-task. Personally, I wish it were not the case, but almost anytime we are called upon to listen, we probably are doing something else. When I am watching a basketball game, I am probably also on my cellphone, texting “Dan! Can you believe that call?” When I am watching “Chopped” on the Food Network, I am probably also surfing the web on my laptop.
In church, I may flip through biblical passages affirming what is being said. I may be “old-fashioned” and turn actual pages of paper, or I may be more technologically savvy and swipe web pages on my cell phone. Better yet, something you said may have spurred my thinking to make an application to my life that you didn’t make – and I want to consider other Scriptures. Undivided attention is a more endangered species than the Amur Leopard.
undivided attention is an endangered species
I understand the usage of rhetorical devices to call attention to a particular point. I do it myself as a teacher. “Make sure you jot this down” or “Expect to see this on a test soon.” But I don’t use the device at every sentence or even every point.
When I speak, I must understand that the listener can “tune out” what I am saying, especially if they aren’t interested or don’t want to hear. The listener has probably gotten very adept at such maneuvers. After all, we have been doing it since our parents yelled as us to clean our rooms. Yeah right. Whatever you say. How about those Cubs?
We all have idiosyncrasies when we speak. For me to be most effective as a speaker, I have to minimize those bad speaking habits, so they are not a point of distraction. I want people to remember what I said, not count how many times I say “uhm.”
If you want me to listen, you don’t have to chastise me into doing so. Give me something of substance to hear.
