Learning to Listen the First Time

I recently had a prompting on a work trip to offer some support to one of the clients with some personal struggles they were having.  I talked myself out of it at the time, came home and told Brett the story, then heard him say words that hit me pretty hard.  He gently said something to the effect that this seems to be a pattern for me.  There have been several times he has noticed I have had specific promptings and delayed acting on them or not acted on them at all.  I was pretty taken back by what he said.  I feel like I generally do a pretty good job of living a positive life and always try to be a force for good in the world.  After contemplating this for a time, I realized there is a huge difference between being a passive force for good and an active force for good.

We were auditing one of our clients about 4 hours away from St. George.  The client was pretty open about the fact that she had just taken her daughter to live in a treatment facility in St. George a few weeks before.  Her daughter had tried to commit suicide a few times and finally she made the big decision of getting her help.  As we worked there throughout the week, I had a strong prompting that I should offer my help.  After all, I live in St. George and work a few blocks from the facility where her daughter now lives.  I pushed it off the first day I had the prompting, with the thought that I would wait until the last day we were there.  The final day of the audit came and again I talked myself out of saying anything, this time with the excuse of not wanting to cross the client/auditor boundary.  I went home without saying anything to her, but told Brett about the prompting.  I also told him that I had decided I would email her the next day to offer my help, but I was worried it might be too late because she was leaving to come down and visit her daughter that day for the rest of the weekend.  I sent her a simple paragraph that went something like this.

“I hope your trip down here to St. George the rest of this week goes well.  I’m not sure if you have any family in the area or not, but I just wanted to let you know you can feel free to call or text me if you need anything while you are down here.  I know it’s a hard situation and can be so emotionally and physically draining, so even if you just need me to pick you up a soda real quick or grab a bite to eat and have somebody to talk to for a few minutes or whatever it happens to be, let me know.  My husband and I are foster parents so we aren’t new to tough situations and I’m happy to help.  I just wanted you to know you do have someone to contact down here if you need anything.J”

As predicted, she didn’t get my email until her return back to work the following week.  Her response to my email is one I will never forget.  She was so grateful I had reached out to her.  She did have a really tough weekend in St. George and she doesn’t know anyone in the area.  One line from her email was “Your email meant more to me than I know how to express - what I have been going through is so ugly and so painful, and knowing there are people that care and don't judge means the world to me right now.”

Luckily for me, I still have time to recoup the situation as she will be coming down a couple times a month to visit her daughter indefinitely.  This experience has been a huge blessing for me in that I was able to see that she could have used my support had I acted on the prompting the first time, but I am getting a second chance.  And who knows, maybe she will never actually call me, but sometimes people just need to know somebody out there cares. 

My current goal is to be an active force for good... the first time I get the prompting, every time.