Imagine walking through ankle deep Jell-O. Every time you pick up your foot there’s a squish sound and when you put your foot back down, there’s an equally weird squarsh sound. Now, I have done some walking in Jell-O, but it was never ankle deep. (I was a youth minister for a while and those youth fellowships can get quite interesting!) I guess you could think about a patch of thick, goopy mud but imagining Jell-O is so much more fun!
Anyway, those strange sounds have been my companions for the past several days. You see, we flew on our recent trip and flying always gets me in the ears. The first flight can be rather painful when the pressure makes it feel as if I’m pulling a cucumber through my ear. Later on, it’s not so bad but every time the pressure shifts, I hear one of those wonderful squishes or squarshes. In addition, it hampers my hearing for a while. I’ve tried antihistamines, chewing gum, and yawning with varying degrees of success. Usually I just try to wait it out and within a few days my ears are pretty much back to normal.
As my ears squished back and forth, I got to wondering, what’s hindering my spiritual ears from hearing God? Sin is in a whole, different zone so going there can really mess up our perception. If we stay there long enough, our “ears” can get very clogged and unreceptive to God’s voice. No amount of chewing gum or yawning could clear that up.
On the other hand, the more we stay with Jesus, the more our ears tune in to Him and the easier it is to hear His voice and follow His lead. And that’s just the way I want it to be! If the plane ever had trouble, I’d want to hear the captain’s instructions clearly. Even more so, I want to hear Jesus’ instructions clearly! His words are life! Have another piece of gum and until our next togethering,
love ya,
Bret
