I wonder how often we really
pause to listen and hear the sounds around us. Are we too focused on whatever
we are doing to really hear sounds? Do you find yourself so familiar with the
sounds, that you don’t really hear them? People that live near railroad
crossings soon learn to tune out the train horns nearby. Have you ever been in
your house when the power goes off? Suddenly it is much quieter because all the
appliance sounds we take for granted are missing.
The same can be true in
our spiritual listening, too. We can (and I speak for myself) get so caught up
in the accomplishing of ‘God’s work’ that we can forget to stop and listen to
hear what God might be saying. We can get so familiar with the sound of the
Christian music on our i-pod or car radio that we don’t really pay attention to
the words. The rhythm of our prayer is rote and we don’t even listen to what we
are saying. We become deaf to the Wonder of God speaking to us.
Sometimes we need help
with our hearing. Modern medicine gives us ways to help those who cannot hear,
or to assist those who have trouble processing what they do hear. One of my
grandchildren went to a couple of weeks of extensive therapy for her language
processing. She can hear just fine, and speak-just not understandably. One of
the little synapsis in her brain wasn’t connecting properly to let her repeat what
she heard. It is amazing what science can accomplish.
In Mark 7:31-37 we meet
a (probably) Gentile man who is brought to Jesus. The Gospel doesn’t say who
exactly brings the deaf man to Jesus, but “they begged him to lay his hand on
him.” Interestingly, Jesus takes the man “aside in private, away from the
crowd” to heal him. “Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him,
‘Ephphatha’, that is, ‘Be opened.’ And immediately his ears were opened, his
tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.”
Perhaps there is a
lesson in this for us. Maybe we, too, need to come aside in private when we’ve
lost the ability to hear God clearly. Megan had to sit with headphones for half
hour stints to help that brain synapsis work. Jesus took the deaf man aside,
away from the crowds, where the man could hear only Jesus. Only in the private,
quiet place can God breathe the word “Ephphatha” so we can hear and speak
plainly. Remember Elijah (I Kings 19:11-12) did not hear God in the fire or
wind or earthquake, but rather in the “still, small voice”.
Elijah was beset by
many worries and feared for his life. He has run away to hide from Jezebel who
threatens to kill him. No wonder he is assaulted by wind and earthquake and
fire. His own fears are consuming him. But “God is not in [these],” but is in
the still, small voice.
Come away to a quiet
place and listen to what God may be saying. You may hear “Ephphatha” and find
your ears and tongue loosened to offer praise and be like the people of the
Decapolis who though, “Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he
ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.” (Mark 7:37)
It is difficult to turn
off the sounds in your mind and heart and surroundings, but in that stillness,
you could just be blessed. At the very least, you will be refreshed. Perhaps,
like Elijah, when you quiet the noise inside and hear that ‘still, small voice’
it may be telling you to “Go…return…anoint” (I Kings 19:15). Or maybe it will
be “go…make disciples...” (Matthew 28:19)
Next week, the
importance of touch. (Oh, and my granddaughter...each day her speech is a bit more understandable.)
