Helen Keller lost both her sight and her hearing as a child. As an adult, she was asked which faculty she would most like to regain. Her answer was: “my hearing because the lack of this is more socially isolating than blindness.”
I love the story in Mark’s gospel where people bring to Jesus a deaf man with a speech impediment. Jesus wisely takes the man away from the crowds before he healed his hearing and his speech. Perhaps Jesus felt that the sudden onslaught of crowd noise would be disconcerting to a man who suddenly gained his hearing.
Our ears, like other body parts, do their job without fanfare or gratitude.
But they receive information that can be life-altering, for good or ill.
If ever there was a world bombarded with words and messages, it is ours.
With a swipe on a screen or a click of a computer mouse, we can choose a plethora of information and or music. Here is a warning from Paul’s letter to Timothy. Sounds just like our society today…
For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine and accurate instruction [that challenges them with God’s truth]; but wanting to have their ears tickled [with something pleasing], they will accumulate for themselves [many] teachers [one after another, chosen] to satisfy their own desires and to support the errors they hold. 2 Timothy 4:3 AMP
A good daily prayer: “Thank you God for my ears, my hearing. Help me to choose wisely what I listen to, and most of all have my inner ear tuned to You and Your Word.”
