Lou Swanson

“I can see your name is Lou,” the TV reporter confidently stated as he approached my grandfather outside of his beach cottage. The reporter looked up at the “Lou’s Haven” sign over the cottage door, and continued, “Can I get your last name, too, and then ask you a few questions?” He had come to do a story about some recent happenings at the beach, and had seen my grandfather puttering around outside.

All the beach cottages had names. Lou’s Haven sat next to the Patricia Lee and the Silver Sands, just down from the Pilot and the Open Deck, near the Summer Place and the Sandbox. In my grandfather’s case, Lou built the cottage. Lou named the cottage. Lou sold the cottage to my grandparents. But my grandfather was not Lou.

So with a mischievous gleam in his eye, my grandfather – Joe Connolly – responded, “Swanson. With an ‘O’. Lou Swanson,” and then proceeded to answer the reporter’s questions.

That night, after the segment aired with Joe Connolly’s face and “Lou Swanson” emblazoned across the bottom of the screen, the calls flooded in to my grandparents. Lou Swanson? Everyone wanted to know, why Lou Swanson? My grandfather’s response: “Well, the reporter didn’t seem interested in my real name, so I said ‘OK. Have it your way.’”

And my way is typically right on par with that reporter – making snap judgments and inferring things before gathering all the facts, before asking questions, and without taking time to listen. We are supposed to be quick to listen and slow to speak (James 1:19), but we tend to reverse the two so we are quick to speak and slow to listen.

I mean, who’s got time to be patient these days while someone drones on and on and on about their situation or what they are going through. Can’t we can make a few quick assumptions after they’ve said a couple of words, and solve the problem in three speedy bullet points? I’ve got a full schedule here! Time to move on to the next issue already!

How can you tell if you’re not listening? When you start finishing someone’s sentences for them, when you start thinking “Oh, I know where this is going” as someone starts talking, and when you assume someone’s name is Lou. 

Take heed and listen up, because as the Message Bible so eloquently puts it, “Answering before listening is both stupid and rude” (Proverbs 18:13).