Take away from me the noise of your songs.… Amos 5:23
I have been leading a men's Bible study for the past two years. Our pastor attends, and one day he shared a story about a former Bible study participant, Rick.
I learned that he had been deaf until late in his life, when a new kind of hearing aid enabled him to hear. “I’ll bet he was thrilled,” I remarked.
“Not right away,” our pastor said. “I mean, eventually he was thrilled. But Rick told me that at first he hated being able to hear. He couldn't make sense of the noise and kept his hearing aid off most of the time. After a life of silence, it was a long time before he could sort through all the sounds bombarding him.”
I could understand Rick's reaction. When I tried to study God's Word as a young man, the Bible seemed like so much noise to me. I gave up and “kept my hearing aid off” for more than 20 years.
Then my younger brother gently and, thank God, persistently persuaded me to focus on the themes most often repeated throughout the Bible:
“Love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18)
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27)
“What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8) and
“Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32).
Rick learned to love what he heard and so did I.
Oh, God, thank You for teaching me to hear Your Word!
