我要你聽我細訴的時候，
你開始提出忠告，這並未依我的需求而行。
我要你聽我細訴的時候，
你開始告訴我，為何你該那樣想，你輕視我的感受。
我要你聽我細訴的時候，
你覺得你必須做些什麼來解決我的問題，你忽略了我。
也許那就是祈禱對人們有幫助的原因。
因為上帝不會說話，不會提供建議或安排什麼。
祂只是傾聽，並相信你有能力自行處理。
所以，請你聽我細訴。如果你要說話，請等一會兒，
等輪到你的時候，我保證一定會聽進去的。
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 on 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 ask is that you listen.
Don’t talk or do – just hear me.
Advice is cheap; 20 cents will get
you both Dear Abby and Billy Graham
in the same newspaper.
And I can do for myself; I am not helpless.
Maybe discouraged and faltering,
but not helpless.
When you do something for me that I can
and need to do for myself,
you contribute to my fear and
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 and 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,
and he doesn’t give advice or try
to fix things.
God just listens and lets you work
it out for yourself.
So please listen, and just hear me.
And if you want to talk, wait a minute
for your turn – and I will listen to you.
