My family has been after me for some time to get my hearing checked. They say they tell me things or try and get my attention and that I don’t hear them. I went to Costco and got checked, and I do have a significant amount of hearing loss. The audiologist says that it isn’t that I cannot hear others, it is that I cannot understand what they are saying. By the way, my daughter Ava, when I asked if she heard me tell her to do something, turned around and said, “yes I heard you, I don’t need hearing aids like you do.”

Most of the time, people are not accused of being hard of hearing, they get saddled with selective or convenient hearing loss. Meaning, we hear what we want to hear and we filter out the rest. The issue with that is we will likely miss something pretty important. It might not apply to the present moment but will come back to bite us when we forget it. Maybe it’s an errand, picking up the kids, going to the cleaners, the drugstore or the grocery store. You know it’s happened to you at least once. Shoot, it happens to me multiple times every week.

This brings me to my point, when it comes to your ability to listen or hear the voice of your Heavenly Father, can you not hear Him at all, or do you have convenient, selective hearing? Throughout the ages, pastors and religious leaders have directed the people to listen and obey what God is telling them or how God is leading them. What none of us tell you is how to do it. Why don’t we? Probably because God “speaks” to all of us differently, at different times, and in different circumstances in our lives. My question for you today is – are you or your loved ones as concerned about hearing and understanding the voice of God, as much as you are hearing what the world has to say?

Mark Batterson wrote a book called, Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God. It is a wonderful little book on how to discern God’s voice in your life and various ways you may experience God as you strive to focus your attention more fully on Him. I will try and discuss the various ways over the next several weeks. This week, start with opening your bibles. Scary thought I know, probably because of the allergic reaction to the dust that’ll go flying when you open it. Hehe. Just joking, I know you all read your bibles all the time. Just open the book and read a passage or two and think about how this applies to your life. Think about that throughout the day. God will speak to you through the scriptures you have read. The Bible is just as relevant today as it has always been, for some reason, we choose to use it less than we probably ever have before.

Have you ever noticed how many people bring their Bibles to church? If you can’t answer the question because you don’t go to church, that’s OK. I challenge you to try reading the Bible too. If you don’t have one and need one, get in touch with me; I’ll find one for you.

Tim Beck is pastor of Kenbridge United Methodist Church. His email address is revtimbeck@ gmail.com.