Recently I started wearing hearing aids—reluctantly. And I must confess I don’t wear them as often as I should. I wasn’t wearing them last week when the nurse who prepared me for cataract surgery asked, “Have you had anything to eat or drink?” I responded, "No thank you.”
In my defense, I can tell you it was an early-morning surgery. I may have been feeling too tired to listen to the nurse.
I was having my left hearing aid adjusted the other day. The audiologist adjusted it and placed it in my ear. “Are you chirpin’?” she asked.
I thought she asked, “Are you German?” I replied, “Nein. Ich bin nicht Deutsch.”
So there you have it—I definitely need hearing aids.
Jesus underscored the importance of hearing well. He cautioned, “Therefore take heed how you hear” (Luke 8:18). Many who heard Him speak, failed to really hear what He said. His words went in one ear and out the other so quickly that nothing registered. Those who should have pondered His words and obeyed them chose to ignore them and therefore continued living in the same-old, meaningless way.
A pastor observed, “I think I know what I say when I preach, but when people tell me what they heard, I wonder if my mind is going bad.”
Hearing aids aren’t for everyone, but we could all benefit from an occasional self-check of our hearing. We can’t afford to miss even one iota of God’s message when we read or hear His Word.
