When I ask you to listen to me
and you start giving me advice,
You have not done what I asked.
When I ask you to listen to me
and you begin to tell me why
I shouldn’t feel that way,
You are trampling of my feelings.
When I ask you to listen to me
and you feel you have to do something
to solve my problem,
you have failed me,
Strange as that may seem.
Listen! All I asked is that you listen.
Don’t talk or do-just hear me.
Advice is cheap; 20 cents will get
you both Dear Abby & Billy Graham
in the same newspaper.
And I can do for myself; I am not helpless.
Maybe discouraged & faltering,
but not helpless.
When you do something for me that I can
and need to do for myself,
you contribute to my fear & inadequacy.
But when you accept as a simple fact
that I feel what I feel,
No matter how irrational.
Then I can stop trying to convince you
and get about this business
of understanding what’s behind
this irrational feeling.
And when that’s clear,
the answers are obvious & I don’t need advice.
Irrational feelings make sense when
we understand what’s behind them.
Perhaps that’s why prayer works, sometimes,
for some people-because God is mute,
he doesn’t give advice or try to fix things.
God just listens
and lets you work it out for yourself.
So please listen, & just hear me,
And if you want to talk,
wait a minute for your turn
and I will listen to you.