To hear or not...

Another week and another sense...

Today, we are looking at hearing. As one of many who are afflicted with very poor hearing, it isn't always easy to catch everything said at times. I once worked with a Methodist minister who happened to be Synod Secretary in the Channel Islands. He wore hearing aids at all times, but if the meetings went on or were particularly boring Gerald would simply switch off his aids and escape mentally, so to speak, for a little while. It was his escape route and of course nothing could be said as "I didn't hear" was his reply! But we all know when we have a cold and are clogged up with catarrh, how we drown in mucus and mishear or miss so much. It is horrible not to follow or to have to guess a response to something when you have missed some of the conversation - it can be hugely embarrassing as well.

To be deaf can leave you feeling isolated and alone, in a world of your own and imagining all sorts. This is of course fairly similar to blindness, except I think you are perhaps not quite as isolated and can join in conversations with confidence. I am not talking here of those who, like Gerald, ducked out, but those who struggle to communicate because of their deafness.

I have worked with children who have been hard of hearing and those who are elective mutes, that is they can speak, but chose not to for whatever reason, often following some sort of trauma. There is so much joy in seeing them blossom, and indeed their own joy, as they realise they can be a valuable part of the class and enjoy the company of their fellow pupils. The child, who hearing for the first time after a cochlear implant, not as we hear, but nevertheless can hear, is then able to engage on a new level.

Thoughts of a Deaf Child

My family knew that I was deaf
When I was only three, and since then fifteen years ago
Have never signed to me.
I know when I'm around the house,
I try and use my voice,
It makes them feel more comfortable;
For me, I have no choice.
I try, communicate their way-
Uncomfortable for me.
My parents wouldn't learn sign
Ashamed or apathy?
I never cared about the sound of radios and bands;
What hurts me most is, I never heard
My parents' signing hands.

-Stephen J. Bellitz Reprinted from Senior News, July 1991

There are various understandings for the phrase to hear. I can hear you speaking on the telephone as the sound waves travel into my ear and also into the bone around my ears. We can know of some news in church say for example which we can say we 'heard about', though that didn't initially come down and into our ears. When we are assuring someone that we know what they are concerned about a frequent response is 'I hear what you say', but meaning more than just sound waves in the ear, rather understand what you say too. We can hear something when it is a written message or signed or shown in a different format. In a similar way when we use the word see we see with our eyes and also with our comprehension.

Matthew 13 16-17 NRSV

"16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. 17 Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it."

How do we hear God's voice speaking to us? Some would say an actual voice, but the majority would say through prayer and understanding and through the words of others. As when discerning a vocation from God, God speaks through a variety of ways which infiltrate our being and we respond, we have heard God.

As with all senses when one is diminished so often another one becomes more sensitive. You may not hear the music as with Evelyn Glennie, who can feel the music and therefore plays her percussion instruments so fabulously. Equally, we may not hear someone or something because we do not understand them or because we fail to listen well and fully. To listen, to hear, is more than using just our ears - as we have already discovered we can hear without ears but we cannot hear without listening and using all of ourselves.

So today, do we hear what is said to us and fully understand that? Are we prepared to say sorry I don't follow you or comprehend? Do we hear through all our senses and apply everything so that we can say with confidence, I hear you?!

You have more ears than you know. Mortality is not everything, the mortal ear utilizes selective hearing; all too often listening to what it wants, weeding out what it should absorb. The human being is the sum of its’ parts; those being mind, body and spirit. To see with the eyes of soul is one thing, to hear with ears of soul is another. One who absorbs only fact, never grows beyond fact. How many new species have been, discovered by pre-established facts? How many were revealed to those whose minds extended beyond the known facts? One does not see the physical wind, but to hear it blow, feel it against the skin, tells one that it exists. Intuition is that sixth sense, that allows for vision and hearing beyond the physical realm. The finite mind cannot fathom the infinite. Did you ever walk into a room full of people, instantly knowing that some didn’t like you? With whom did you strike up a conversation; Was it someone that made you feel comfortable? Did you ever hear the telephone ring, before it actually rang? You were hearing with soul’s ears. Take time to sit in the silence, go within yourself to hear amazing wisdom and grow. You are more than mortal so live it. M L Kiser