Non-Listening

The ear is not the only faculty that listens.  The will listens too.  We decide to ignore someone and so we don't listen to what they are saying.  The will decides and the ear simply follows.  Or we decide to think about something else and not someone else, as in, "What did you say?"  The will decides on what is important information depending on our priorities.  If you are starving, you will hear the dinner bell, no matter how distant.  One of my efforts in becoming a better person is to align my listening will to whoever is talking to me.  I think when people say that they gave up prayer because they heard nothing, it might be because they do not know how to listen, but only how to ask for what the will wants.  And they did not get what they wanted.