Listening with Two Healthy Ears

The last week or so, my right ear has been clogged up.  Feeling like an ill fitting ear plug has been inserted in the ear, I can hear though sounds are a bit muffled.  I have grown more and more frustrated with this as the sounds around me are not heard as easily as they usually are.  Holding one hand over my left ear, I try and listen with the right and notice how sounds are still there just a bit dimmer. 

A clogged ear is frustrating enough in the real physical sense.  It impedes in conversation, hurts my head, and my hand keeps finding it’s way over to my ear and rubbing around my ear to see if I can relieve the pressure. 

A spiritually clogged ear is not only frustrating, but can be dangerous.  It can be so hard to hear God midst the sound of every type of media that is available, but when our hearts are hard it leads to clogged ears.  What can that do to us?  If we can’t hear God’s direction, we can head in the wrong direction, getting lost in the process.  Sometimes, we misplace the task that God has given us, putting it up on the shelf and collecting dust when we should have it out and working.  I think about a time in my own life that I had clogged spiritual ears.  My listening was full of grad school, friends, church, work, family; they weren’t bad things, but all busy, noisy, demanding things.  I had a conflict that needed to be dealt with and just didn’t know how.  Mulling this over and over and over in my mind, I would pour out my heart to God.  But, I didn’t hear the answer until my ears were unclogged.

There is a little bottle of swimmer’s ear drops in my bathroom, sitting on the counter.  It hurts just a bit as the drops sit in the ear, a sting which can be felt all the way through my ear and into my head.  Ouch!  I know that the liquid stinging inside my ear will help it heal and soon my hearing will be back to normal.  I have to take my medicine to make it better.  Often with spiritual ear clogs, it works the same way.  Something will sting as God starts clearing away the blockage.  Little by little the medicine of the ultimate Healer works and our hearing is returned. 

How are your ears today, do you need to borrow some swimmer’s ear drops?