A Silent World

Falling snow is very peaceful.  I love to sit at a window and watch the flakes come down.  This is one thing I did long ago as a young girl before I know the world had sound.

I am hearing impaired. My level of hearing loss in both ears is equated to pushing the "mute" button on the remote control of a television set.  In fact, the latest version of hearing aids have this feature on the remote controls.  I have been known to silently push "mute" during a particularly long-winded speech (shh! don't tell).

I love that I can control the noise of the world.  When life gets a little overwhelming, I can turn a switch and retreat into my own quiet space.  This is the best way to sleep, too.  I have little difficulty falling asleep and almost never wake up in the night.  It is a gift.

When I was younger, my hearing aids were more prominent, and less effective at hearing the world.  I was often ridiculed and mocked for my funny "deaf accent" and pronounced loud breathing (that I can't hear).  I often wished that I could wake up some day and not have to put on the hearing aids to hear.

I became a believer at age 19 and was introduced to the charismatic gifts of the Spirit.  I thought God wanted to heal me.  I prayed for healing so many times, and found myself disappointed that He did not heal me.  I thought I didn't have enough faith.  I thought my sins were too great.

Now, I know the hearing loss is God's gift to me.  Even though there are sounds I miss, and movies I have to wait to see when it can be closed-captioned, I would not trade the benefits of peaceful quiet I can have at the click of a button.  I just would like to know how I can use this gift for the purposes of His ministry.

"God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts.  Use them well to serve one another."  ~1Peter 4:10 (NLT)

I plan to post about movies again, but am waiting for the good ones to come out on Blu-Ray, so I can close-caption them.