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Tuesday, June 13, 2006

High-Pitched Ring Tones and Unhearing Ears

In the news the last couple of days has been a story about high-pitched ring tones. Apparently young ears are better able to hear certain pitches than older ears. This has been discovered by industrious, young, entrepreneurs who are capitalizing off of this information. They're marketing ring tones to students who don't want teachers to know they're text-messaging during class. They're marketing ring tones to kids who don't want their parents to know they're receiving calls.

"If a cell phone doesn't make a noise can it be ringing?!" Sounds like a deep, philosophical question some ancient, Greek thinker might have asked.

There are a lot of places in the Bible where "hearing" is important. Many times Jesus or others say/write, "Let him who has an ear hear..."

Have you ever reflected back upon a conversation with another person, sort of comparing notes, and one of you says to the other, "I didn't hear that at all"? Sometimes spiritual life is like that.

The spiritual ancestors of my tradition teach us that the ability to hear is a gift. Sometimes we don't hear anything and we think no one is speaking. We assume there is no noise. But maybe we're wrong. Maybe if we haven't heard anything in awhile, (or ever), it's because we are unable to hear. My prayer for you today is that Someone would open your ears, give you a keener sense of hearing, and you'd be ready to pick-up conversations that are happening around you each and everyday.

Grace & peace.