The LORD came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” 1 Samuel 3:10
During a visit to my aunt’s house, I watched the boys looking around every fifteen minutes. Finally, they couldn’t handle it anymore and asked what the noise they kept hearing was. My aunt was stumped. She couldn’t figure out what noise they were talking about. We finally figured out it was her clock that gave a little chime every quarter-hour. She’s so used to the sound that she doesn’t even hear it.
The same thing happened to my hubby’s cousin when he was staying with us. We had a clock that chimed every hour. It never bothered us because we never even heard it through the night. Unfortunately, he didn’t get much sleep because of it waking him up. He wasn’t immune to the sound like we were!
When our water softener regenerates, it sounds like a jet taking off in our basement. I thought for sure that we’d have to set it to regenerate during the day since I was wide-awake listening to it during the middle of the nigh, but it didn’t take long for me to not even wake up.
It amazes me that someone could even live next to train tracks, but it doesn’t even register that the train is going past. The silence would attract more attention! I even listened to someone talk about how quiet it was around where we lived so it was terrible sleeping, but when we stay in a city we can’t sleep because of the traffic and noise. Our noise is just different. Spring peepers sing us a lullaby, and traffic sings others to sleep.
Do you know anyone who can’t seem to get up with an alarm clock? I used to have one that would play music and it was just incorporated into my morning dreams. Why? Probably because I wouldn’t get up right away the first time I heard it. I’d just listen to it for a while before starting the day. The same thing happens when someone starts hitting snooze. They get used to hearing it!
Are you guilty of not hearing? Is there an area of your life where you’ve heard something so often that it doesn’t even register? I know it happens in my house. The boys have heard me say the same thing so many times while not taking action that they stopped truly hearing me. We have to be careful that we don’t get so used to not giving full attention to what is being said that we stop hearing the needs of one another.
Are you still tuned in when God speaks to you, or did you get in the habit of saying, “I’ll do that later.” If so, what awesome things are you missing out on because you no longer hear God’s call because you got used to ignoring it? Be as attentive as Samuel was in order to hear God’s voice. Don’t let it fall into the area of noise that no longer registers.
Today, practice hearing on purpose.
