‘MIND YOUR EARS’

Friday: 16th August, 2019

Reference text: Luke 1:39-56

Luke 1:41 And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost:

In world with prime focus on attaining greater efficiency across all disciplines, I know of a sporting experiment conducted to establish whether it would be better to make use of the sense of sight at the start of a race or stick with the usual- the sense of sound. Thus, using the same conditions and athletes, their reaction time after the stimuli of a gun shot was compared to that after a light bulb was lit.

It was determined, albeit by the smallest of margins, that the reaction time was a lot quicker when sound was used because the processing of visual stimuli is a more complex process compared with auditory. In the Gospel today, until Mary spoke, nothing happened; but from the very moment the sound of her voice reached Elizabeth’s ears, things began to happen.

Beloved, we may have seen ‘mind your head’, but may not have paid particular attention to ‘mind your ears’. Thus,

we often react to the things we hear even before we have time to filter and process what might be going on.

For instance, any sound close enough to a gun shot is interpreted as one and symbolic of danger. Hence, we respond by running even though it may likely be sound from a different source.

Such can be the power of our hearing-

auditory stimuli are processed at such a pace that if we aren’t careful, we might have things established in our minds unconsciously and at speeds much faster than we would anticipate.

So to speakers, watch what you transmit and to hearers, seek to consciously filter and process what you hear. It’s not a matter of making mountains out of mole hills with avid imaginations, but allowing only those words that add to you be established.

#sly