“If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear” (Mark 4:23).
A cartoon shows a husband reading his newspaper as his wife says, “You can stop saying, ‘Uh-huh.” I haven’t said a word to you for five minutes.” There is one thing that is far worse than having no hearing and that is to have ears to hear and yet be deaf to what people are saying.
Anyone who ever struggled with physical hearing knows the frustration that comes by answering question which were not asked or having to repeatedly say, “Excuse me, but I just can’t quite understand what you are saying.”
“Of all the many ills that have beset mankind,” writes medical doctor Aram Glorig, “none has been as seriously misunderstood as impaired hearing.” I agree. Of course, from the days of Adam and Eve, women have suspected that men just don’t hear things—or at least prefer not to hear some things; but for those who really have a hearing problem, there is nothing humorous about it.
Until about the sixteenth century, people associated deafness with a lack of intelligence. Remember that the English word “dumb” until recent years applied both to mutes and to those lacking intelligence. The ancients used to think that anyone who could not hear, subsequently who was not articulate, was mentally deprived, and as far back as the second century B.C., deaf mutes were denied citizenship under Roman law and were classified with imbeciles and children.
Being unable to hear is a severe loss, overshadowed perhaps only by having had your hearing and then losing it. At the age of 20 Donald Eddington tells how within a three-day period of time, he lost his hearing. “I realized then,” he said, “that I was facing a long future without my hearing, that the best I could hope for was to hear again in my dreams, and I made a vow never to forget the music, the sound of rain falling on the sidewalk, [and] my parents’ voices.”
Then technology began to change the silent world of those who could not hear. Eddington received a cochlear implant, which the French began to develop in the 70s and more recently has been refined.
Today digital hearing aids which are really tiny amplifiers—a kind of private public address system—allow the hearing-impaired to understand what they would have totally missed a few decades ago. Digital hearing units change frequencies more than 30,000 times per second and eliminate the shrill ringing which drove grandpa into hysterics when the grandchildren yelled or someone dropped a dish.
Hearing aids not only enable communication and learning, they also give the wearer confidence, which eventually produces greater income. Those who struggle with hearing will earn 20% less than those who interact with understanding.
How many people struggle with their hearing? Yes, many in grandfather’s crowd, but as many as one in ten children today have hearing impairments severe enough to require professional help.
There is no question that your sight is more important than your hearing, but since the option isn’t one or the other, do everything you can not only to gain hearing but to retain it. Turn down the decibels on the music if you can hear it without cranking it over the top, and learn to listen.
When I had ear surgery a few years ago and was completely without hearing in one ear for a period of time, I had to develop the habit of listening, looking directly at those who spoke to me, learning to rephrase what I thought I had heard, and—yes, overcoming my embarrassment to ask someone to repeat.
It’s amazing how much better you understand when you concentrate on what you are hearing instead of thinking about what you intend to say as soon as another stops talking. Only those who have the ability to hear but do not listen are the really dumb. Never, never throw away one of your great gifts from God—your hearing.
Resource reading: Mark 4
