Trained to hear

Do you remember the story of the Cherokee Indian walking down 5th Avenue in Manhattan with a New York businessman? Suddenly the Indian stopped and said, "Did you hear that?" The business man asked, "Hear what?" "That cricket" replied the Indian. "You must be kidding" the businessman retorted over the din of the sounds from cars honking and machine engines running. "No", said the Indian, "you hear what you train your ears to hear!" How true.

Such training was necessary in medical school. I listened to the amplified sounds of a person's chest through a stethoscope, but I could not understand or differentiate the meaning of those tones and sounds. After many classes and countless hours of listening to tapes of heart, lung and bowel sounds, my hearing changed. No longer were heart sounds just a lub-dub to my ears but rather nuanced tones that warned of illness and disease. A trained ear is a valuable tool in a physician's black bag!

So too our spiritual ears can be vital tools for living when disciplined and trained. God is speaking but so often I do not hear Him over the cacophony of life's noise. God speaks to us through His word and by His Spirit . . . will we, like Isaiah, be able to say,

  "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying. . . .." (Isaiah 6:8 NIV)

Sharing the journey with you,