Great Spirit, said a man while sitting in silence, what is it, the most difficult thing in the world? To speak to a mountain to throw himself into the sea? To make the sun shine in an evil heart? Or to to love a cruel one truly?

Silence. The man couldn´t see or hear but silence.

Great Spirit, heavenly father, will you not answer me? Jesus did promise you would, didn´t he?

Silence. Not one word nor impulse. Only silence.

The man begun to realize: Silence was the answer, and he took it serious. And he said: So be it! Thank you!

Later that week he was watching a broadcast with politicians on a certain subject. There he got aware about something that made him wonder: they were all speaking at once, they didn´t listen at each other and each one added one´s two cents. And unfortunately, the moderator wasn´t able to clear the situation.

Two days later his son came to him and asked for a talk. Dad, he said, I need you to listen to me. Can you do that? Say nothing, just listen. We can later talk!

And then the son begun to talk and tell the father that he had a plan to kill himself, because he found no sense in life anymore. And the father in his perplexity remembered the silence of the heavenly father and thought: at all costs, I owe it to my son to just listen and say nothing! And he suppressed his compulsion to add his two cents and found his peace to just listen. And he listened and listened and listened.

In the meanwhile it had become night when the son finally hugged his father and gave him an envelope with his personal documents. The father took it and said:now, that I have come that far together with you, I feel peace to tell you that you are free to do whatever you feel is right to you.

Will you also keep caring to let me have a dignified burial, dad? This would be important to me! And the father said yes with tears in his eyes. I love you, he said. I know, the son replied. Then he left into the night.

After two month the son was still alive. He came back to his father and asked for the envelope. I found I should go on living, he said. I found no power to ram the kife into my heart and smoked a pack of cigarettes and finally puked. Then I was sitting on the ground having peed on my pants and wept as never before in my life. And I remembered you and your courage just to listen to me and say not one word. This touched me deeper than my disgust of living on. I believe I understand now why God is slow with answers.

Yes, his father said. Listening is harder than answering. It is sure that way...

This is a modified story I have experienced with a friend 3 years ago, when we together discovered the groundless depth of listening.