Hearing Impaired?

I met a sweet woman the other day who was hearing impaired.  I was a little apprehensive to meet her because I didn’t know if I could communicate with her.  It turned out fine because she has a wonderful skill of reading lips and she can speak well enough along with hand gestures that I knew what she was saying.

            I got to thinking about her later and thought she probably hears a lot better than us fully functioning hearing people, although, I wouldn’t say we are always “fully functioning” in the hearing department.  Have you ever told your child to clean their room and they don’t seem to hear you.  But you can say to your spouse in a quiet voice, in a different room from your child, “Let’s go out to eat” and that child runs in and says, “Where are we going?”  My husband and I call that selective hearing.

            I’m going to wager a good guess that we all have been guilty of selective hearing at one time or another, with our family, friends and maybe even more with our Lord.  I know I have.

            For years, He was telling me to witness but I turned a deaf ear.  I was afraid of witnessing so I just pretended not to hear, ignoring the voice.  Years later, (He never let up), I finally decided to join an evangelism group and for the first year was the trainee going out on visits with a team and a leader, learning and practicing as I went.  The second year I became the leader of a group. This was huge for someone who was always very quiet and just wanted to blend into the crowd.  This experience gave me confidence like I had never had before, and realized that when you are being obedient to the voice of the Lord, he will give you the tools to succeed. This just increased my faith all the more.  There were tremendous blessings for me through this experience and was a huge growth period in my life. With this new confidence, I walked right into other experiences I would not have before, and I received many more blessings.  The blessings of getting to share my faith, my love for God and seeing the light bulb come on for them.  I met a lot of great people.  God knew this would be so for me and I was glad He was so persistent.

            How many blessing I wonder we miss because we turn a deaf ear to Him.  He loves us and only wants what is best for us.  He wants to bless us and use us to bless others. So why do we tune Him out?  Maybe we just don’t hear Him at all because we have forgotten to listen for His voice.  Maybe we don’t recognize His voice because we do not spend the time we should with Him.  I think more than anything, we’re scared as I was with this lady.  But she took my hand and smiled at me and I was instantly at ease.

            The Lord wants to touch us, to smile on us…He says, “Hear my voice.”  John 10:27 , “The Lord speaks to His sheep and His sheep hear His voice.”   I smile as I think about the woman I met.  I know she is a believer in Christ so I know even though she cannot hear my voice, she can hear the voice of our Savior. 

            Later, I felt ashamed of myself for being apprehensive in meeting her.  She is a sweet child of God who some might say she is handicapped.  I believe between the two of us, I was the one handicapped, but God put the two of us together for just a few minutes, and I was taught a valuable lesson.  One, not to be afraid of someone who communicates differently, and to make sure my own ears are in tune with not just others, but with my Lord always.  I don’t think of this lady as hearing impaired anymore.  I and others who practice selective hearing are the ones who should be called hearing impaired. 

            I would like to challenge you along with myself the next time someone speaks to us, let’s give them our full attention.  After all, is that not what we want when we are the ones speaking?  And when we hear from our Lord, let’s not turn a deaf ear to Him; let’s not practice selective hearing with Him.  Remember, He will never tell you something bad, and He will never tell you to do something that He will not give you the tools to accomplish that something with.  Let’s be excited to hear from Him, to be obedient to His voice, and see what exciting things happen.

            Did you hear me?

“The Lord speaks to His sheep and His sheep hear His voice.”

John 10:27