I’ve had a weird week dealing with a plugged ear. At first, I thought wax had accumulated, so I started the drops and flushing routine for a few days, but heard no improvement. We’re talking totally blocked hearing in my right ear. My efforts now focus on reducing nasal congestion, and a strong decongestant seems to be breaking it up a little. I’m told it could be up to two weeks before it resolves!
Meanwhile, I have experienced some of the oddities and embarrassments that hard-of-hearing folks have told me about in my pastoral travels. “Talk into my good ear—don’t approach me from the right.” “Could you repeat that again, please?” “I wish I could read your lips, but masks make that impossible.” The funniest one was Wednesday while I was having a pre-op MRI done. The MRI tech gives me squishy earplugs to put in my ears and then big noise-cancelling headphones to wear during the noisy procedure. Unbeknownst to me, he was checking on my wellbeing with periodic questions that did not go through the headphones. When I didn’t answer, he rushed into the room thinking something was wrong, only to discover I was totally deaf!
Hubby’s “mumbling” has gotten worse and I can’t hear a thing the man says, so I ignore him and go about my business. I have heard it said that blindness tends to separate a person from things, but deafness separates a person from other people. My experience this week has shown me how easy it is to withdraw from the people I love and exist in my own echo chamber.
Which brings me to an admonition heard often in the Scriptures: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear what God is saying!” Jesus used the phrase after teaching parables. John’s letter to the churches in Revelation repeatedly invited those with ears “to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.” The Major Prophets observed that God gave people the ability to hear him, and lamented the closed ears of those who refused to heed God’s Word.
So while I deal with this annoying physical problem, I feel God is inviting me to get a spiritual hearing check, too. Am I still in touch with the “voice” of Jesus in my life? Am I aware of the Spirit’s direction in my homebound routines? Am I listening to God through Bible reading and meditation? Conversely, is my own voice drowning out the still, small voice of the One who loves me? Am I refusing to listen to viewpoints other than my own, most especially those voices that call me to repentance, to love, and to righteous action? If Jesus were to speak directly to me today, would I even recognize his voice?
On a macro scale, our society also needs a hearing check. For starters, we have lost an important skill, “active listening.” We do a lot of talking and opining, but we don’t often listen to others with patience or respect. Our common life should not be dominated by debate, but characterized by collaboration. This requires listening not only to surface talk but acknowledging feelings, alternative viewpoints, and creative outside-the-box ideas.
One of the practices I grew up with, going to church, highlights our call to listen. After the Gospel was read, the priest would sit down and maintain silence for 60 seconds (I timed him once). It seemed like an eternity to a kid, but what he was promoting was reading the Word and listening for what God might be saying to the hearer. It seems that this practice would do us good, even in conversation. “Mm, let me think about what you’ve said for a minute. It is a new idea for me, worthy of some consideration.”
Lord, give me ears to hear you and the courage to follow in the direction you lead me. And please heal my ear, so I can hear others, too!
