The Hearing Test

Sep 02, 2016

A man is talking with the family doctor when the doctor happens to ask how the rest of the family is doing. The man says they’re all fine, though he is concerned that his wife’s hearing may be going.
The doctor suggests a simple way to see if there’s a problem. He says the man should say something to his wife in a normal tone of voice from about 30 feet away from her sometime. He explains people with normal hearing may not understand you at that distance but should at least be able to tell you said something.
If she doesn’t respond, the doctor continues, he should keep moving a few feet closer and trying again, so if she does have a hearing problem, they can get an idea how serious it is.
That evening, while his wife is at the kitchen sink, the man realizes he has the perfect opportunity to test the doctor’s advice. From the living room, in a normal voice, he says, “Honey, what are we having for dinner?” No response from his wife.
He moves to the doorway between the two rooms and asks again, “Honey, what are we having for dinner?” Again, no response. He moves about halfway across the room toward her and asks yet again, “Honey, what are we having for dinner?” Still no response.
Finally, he moves up right behind her and asks one more time, “Honey, what are we having for dinner?” With a soapy dish in hand and scrub brush in the other, the wife turns around and in exasperation says, “For the fourth time, meatloaf!”
Funny how easy it is to think that the problem is always with—the other guy. This makes me think of the words of Jesus, in matt, chapter 7. We see Jesus ask in verse 4, quote, “how wilt thou say to thy brother, ‘Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye?’ and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?” And then he goes on to say in verse 5, “Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.”
The husband in our story seemed to perhaps have a beam in his EAR! You know something worth pointing out is, this passage in the book of Matthew DOESN’T say we’re not to help one another—and in fact, it’s really saying we should look to our own situation in order that we CAN be of help to the other person. I remember thinking of it this way one time after reading this passage. Imagine you saw someone in quicksand. Well, it’s not going to do the other person any good for you to just jump in after them—you’ll both go under. No, you need to make sure YOU’RE secure—that YOU’RE on solid ground—so that when you DO reach out to that person, you really can offer them the help they need. And what’s the surest foundation you can stand upon? As the hymn says, “How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!”
Be grounded, be in God’s Word—and you’ll better be able to deal with both your own beams, as well as the motes of others.

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