Is Listening Different Than Hearing?

I find us very interesting. We can be apart from each other for long periods of time and go on as if time stood still when we are good friends. What allows people to become good friends? Sometimes we say that opposites attract. Sometimes we talk about what we have in common. Which is correct? Are they both correct?

What causes people who have developed a close friendship to lose what they developed? From my point of view, it has a lot to do with the ears. I believe our sense of hearing has been incredibly dulled. We have noise going on around us all the time. We have televisions with so many channels we can surf endlessly and still not find "something to watch". We won't turn it off just to sit in silence. We have radios in our cars. Mine has the satellite radio so that, just like my TV, I can surf endlessly and still get frustrated that I have "nothing to listen to".

We don't listen to our friends. We barely even hear them because we are thinking of the next thing we are going to say. We don't really listen to what they say because we don't really hear the clues they are giving that they are hurting.

We don't listen to ourselves when we know we are bothered by something we need to discuss with them. Our silence causes us to begin to resent them in a small way. If we do finally say something, it is often at a time when we have "had enough" and we explode. Explosions, even controlled explosions, are messy. Explosions can eat away at our friendships. If we don't eventually decide to say something, we just grow distant. You can't love someone from a distance.

It seems to me that my relationship with God is lacking because I don't listen to him. When I hear him, I don't do what he wants me to do. Hearing and listening are two different things to me. The other day I passed a car which had its flashers on and was sitting in one lane of the two going in the direction I was going. There were a few people sitting in the car. They looked like kids, definitley not adults. No one was in the drivers seat. I thought I should stop and help push the car. As I kept driving, I thought that I might scare them if I stopped. (You know I can be very intimidating!) I kept driving, wondering. As I got about a 1/2 mile down the road, I saw an older gentleman running back toward the car with a gas can which he had obviously filled up at the station nearby. I thought I should turn around and give him a ride back to the car. Again, I just kept driving and thinking that he would be back there before I could turn around, get back to him, pick him up and take him back to the car. I heard God telling me to help others. As I often do, I didn't listen.

I wonder why God is so patient with me??