Matthew 11:15
The other day I was driving down our alley and came across a dangerous situation. A young man was cutting the grass in the back of the property between a fence and the alley. The strip of grass was not very wide so he had to keep stepping back into the alley in order to reposition the mower. Well, this isn’t such a bad situation as long as the person would keep checking for traffic. Here’s what made it dangerous. He had himself “plugged in!” With his ear buds in his ears and the mower roaring away, he could not hear me approach. I slowed down to a crawl, but he kept stepping back into the alley and never saw me. If I hadn’t been alert and extra cautious, I would have hit him.
This brought to my mind Jesus’ words: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” This young man had his ears tuned to one thing and was unable to hear my vehicle approach. He did not have “ears to hear” something for which he should have been listening.
Jesus’ warning is so true. We all have ears with which to hear, but so many people are just tuned in to certain things. They listen to their favorite music, to talk about their sports teams, hobbies, movies, etc., to those with their own political views, their favorite speakers, those who agree with them. But by and large God is turned out. Opposing views are tuned out. Anything challenging is tuned out. For some, anything different is tuned out. For many, they only hear themselves. Their ears hear only what they want to hear.
Jesus means for us certainly to be listening for His voice, His words, and then take them to heart. If we have a closed mind to a new thought on a scripture, we will never hear it. If we have a closed mind to certain individuals, we will never hear their good words. If we are so tuned in to the world, we will not be in a position to hear Jesus when He calls for us to do something or wants to teach us some important truth.
Don’t be plugged in. “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”