Hello from India! I’m doing some work here with Saving Moses and the travel to get here has been interesting because of many changes from navigating Covid. One of the realities of doing international travel in the Covid season is continually wearing a mask through all airports and on all planes. From the time you enter the airport until you exit the doors, you have to keep wearing a mask. On this trip, my ears have been sore from wearing this mask for so long and it’s starting me thinking about the various usages for our ears.
Obviously, we use our ears for hearing, but we also use our ears to wear masks to cover our nose and mouth. With my ears being sore from wearing the mask for so long, I’m happy when I get to take it off and when I do, there are some interesting things I observe. It’s easier to talk and communicate facial expressions when I’m not wearing a mask. I think that’s a genius observation that can apply throughout all of our lives. Putting on a mask for Covid can maybe help to remind us that disguising our authentic self can make for some serious communication challenges. My sore ears have heightened my experience and reminded me this truth.
Another thing that we use our ears for is to wear glasses, thus helping our ability to see. On this trip, when I put on glasses for reading, my ears get sore because of wearing the mask for so long during travel. So, I have to choose between having sore ears and being able to read or not having sore ears but being unable to read. Normally, my vision isn’t affected by my ears, or so I have thought. As I think about this, however, when my ears are sore or my hearing is impaired, it can cloud my perceptions, obscuring my vision. And in the simplest application, it’s hard to read a menu and order food if I don’t wear my readers because my ears are sore. It’s interesting to consider that our ears can have an impact on our vision.
When I think about the most obvious usage for my ears, it’s hearing. When I have long travel, sometimes my hearing gets impaired because of the pressure changes with flying so much and doing altitude changes. I think this can apply to us in relation to the ups and downs in life, which can sometimes make it challenging to hear from God. When we go through down seasons in our lives, we can struggle to hear God’s voice, wrestle with doubts, and find ourselves angry, depressed, discouraged, frustrated and maybe even skinny on hope. Such times and experiences can seem to turn down the volume on God’s voice in our lives, but maybe that’s all the more reason to lean in close so that we can listen with more attention and greater focus.
With these observations, let’s keep in mind Jesus’ words from Matthew 11:15, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” Maybe also it can be helpful to pray John 10:27 and Proverbs 22:17, asking God to incline our ears to hear His voice. Let’s prioritize hearing God in our lives!
