What We Hear

David Hayward's cartoon featured above gets at a lot of important points. We frequently “mishear” even those we claim to consider authorities. It happens with Jesus' teaching as depicted in the Gospels. But even if Jesus were physically in our midst, that is no guarantee that we would not hear him confirming our biases when he was actually trying to challenge them.

As the saying goes, “I know you understood what you thought I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard isn't what I meant.”