I was diagnosed with nerve deafness when I was in second grade. At the time, my hearing loss was mostly to high-pitched sounds, so it wasn't that big of a deal. Over the years, my hearing grew progressively worse until I reached a point where I needed hearing aids. My parents gifted those to me a few years ago, and at first, I was amazed by all the sounds I had been missing. But, as time passed, I found wearing the hearing aids to be exhausting. Going to a restaurant with hearing aids? Nightmare. Everything is amplified, not just the voices of the family around you. I still struggled to hear when people spoke to me because of the background noise. I have a theory about this (and it is not the least bit scientific). I think my brain was unable to process all of those other sounds because it was accustomed to my impaired hearing. I would get headaches if I wore my hearing aids all day. I truly breathed a sigh of relief every time I removed them from my ears...until I forgot to remove them once and got them wet. Oops. Anyway, my point is that the background noise was completely OVERWHELMING to me. I am much more content to not hear certain things.
Spiritually, I have been feeling overwhelmed by distractions for over two years. I am exhausted. Social media, streaming apps, etc. distract me from what is most important, and this leads to discontentment. The distractions are making it difficult to hear and experience what truly matters. Faith and Family. Just as my brain struggled to process the inundation of sounds, I think our hearts struggle to hear directly from the speaker of Peace when everything else is amplified. So, I am going to try to silence some of this "background noise". I haven't decided exactly what changes I am going to make, but I am praying through it and trying to determine what is best. I know it will include some combination of reduced social media and electronics, and increased prayer and time in the Word. I just have to figure out how to implement that. Have you experienced this struggle before? If so, what changes did you make?
