Say, What!?

Grace and peace, friends. I pray this message finds you all well!

So, I have been sporting a new accessory the past few weeks that you may or may not have noticed. I’m guessing many of you have not, but in case you have, your powers of observation are on point. I now wear hearing aids.

I’ve known for a while that hearing loss was hereditary among the men in the Sorensen family, but I always expected the days of “hearing aids” to come much later in life. My first signs began a couple years ago when I stopped hearing certain frequencies and sounds that others would hear, but I would not. As it began to get progressively worse, my ear doctor shared that “now was the time.” So, I jumped into this new and – quite honestly – advanced technological world.

The features that are available to me are really quite amazing. For example, did you know that they’re Bluetooth-enabled? Meaning, I can take my cell phone calls and they go directly to my hearing aids. So bizarre. They also connect to my podcasts and music playlists from my phone. Who knew? There are so many crazy features I am learning about every single day, but of them all, there’s one that has been a game changer for me. My biggest hearing deficit has been in restaurants. I find that when I am meeting anyone in a space that is a big open room where sound tends to bounce around, it’s impossible for me to hear the voices of the people I am eating with or visiting with. Now, with the addition of my new bionic ears, I can actually turn on an app, turn off the background noise beside and behind me, and adjust my hearing to the person I am sitting across from. Literally, it fades the background noise down and focuses my hearing on the one sitting directly in front of me. Not gonna lie. My wife loves this feature the most. 😉

As I am adapting to this new world of sound and noises, I can’t help but think how this feature fits to our relationships and how we are in relationship with the Lord, right? Truth be told, there’s so much background noise in the world. Truly, every single day we’re surrounded by noise and distraction, yet, when we do the work to turn down the noise and focus on the One in front of us, it’s amazing what the Spirit can do. In Matthew 22, Jesus said that we are to love God and love people. Simply put,

To be in relationship with others well, we must daily be in relationship with the One who made us. It takes effort, but the words of love and encouragement we get from the Lord are so worth it.