David Augsburger

This should go without saying, but we are not a listening culture right now.

And David Augsburger once said that for the average person, being listened to is so close to being loved that it is almost indistinguishable.

I'm like...

I just think that's so wise.

I've got the mic.

But it's in this book that a guy called David Augsburger wrote.

It's called Dissident Discipleship.

And the story, which I'm pretty sure is a true story, is there's an evangelical minister, and he goes and visits an Amish bishop.

And without knowing the other person, it is hard to be intimate.

There's a quote by David Augsburger that says, being heard is so close to being loved that most people cannot tell the difference.

So if you're communicating and the person is feeling heard, They feel loved.

And when people feel loved, it draws them closer together And it creates intimacy.

Like people are so...

There's a quote by David Augsburger that I've been loving in this season.

He says...

Being listened to is so close to being loved that for the average person, they are almost indistinguishable.

Because the truth is people are hungry to be heard and they're finding it easier to get more from a software than from the people sitting next to them at work.

The Mennonite educator, David Augsburger put it this way.

Look at this quote with me.

Being heard is so close to being loved that for the average person, they're almost indistinguishable.

Is that what Jesus expects of us as well? Is the call to forgiveness really just a call to willingly submit to abuse? And if not, then spoiler alert, I think it's not, why not? What is the alternative vision that is being extended for us here? One key insight in helping us answer these questions is the communal nature of the cultural context in which these things were written, and the ways that that's a fundamen- fundamentally different context than our own cultural situation.

I'm gonna draw quite a bit from a book by Professor David Augsburger.

It's called Helping People Forgive, which is kind of a terrible title for the book, 'cause it makes it sound as if it's a practical handbook, and it very much is not that, and it ranges over much more territory than just forgiveness.

But anyhow, it is a good book, if not for the faint of heart to try and wade through.