Turn Up Your Volume

A few years ago, I went in for a hearing exam. My only real complaint was not being able to hear a person clearly who is talking to me when we are in a noisy room. The audiologist said that was common and hearing aids would not necessarily fix that issue. It was enough of an issue for me that I purchased some hearing aids anyway. Guess what? The audiologist was right. They were not a solution for my hearing issue.

Recently my wife Patt had her hearing exam and left with these high-tech hearing aids. She could adjust the volume of her hearing aids from her phone by sliding the virtual bar up or down. I can accuse her all I want about her selective hearing, and she just smiles and slides the bar up or down to fix the issue, I think.

It occurs to me that with or without hearing aids we can adjust our own volume bar up or down at will. I learned years ago that listening is a skill that can be and should be learned. That may sound funny but consider this: how often does someone speak to us and although we hear them speaking, we have not really listened to what they said? I heard it said that the best conversationalists are those who dominate the listening.

If we are introduced to someone new, can we after departing from them restate their name and the details that we learned about them in the conversation? Let’s take this another direction.

Let’s say in a conversation with someone that they make a certain comment. Let’s say they have a low toned voice which can easily be lost in a noisy room. However, you clearly heard this comment because it was a compliment to you. What is it about compliments that we can clearly hear at any decibel?

Anytime someone compliments us, especially if it is sincere, we immediately push them up to the top of our Favorites List, right? After all, how often do we get compliments? Let’s keep going with this.

Now, let’s say that we are given high praise by someone publicly. Aren’t we overcome with mixed emotions? We feel a sense of humility and a sense of being appreciated. We may feel so appreciated that we might even be tempted to lay down our life for that person who gave us those high praises.

Let us now flip the coin. Someone who thinks highly of us and loves us beyond measure is Jesus. In fact, He did lay down His life for us. That is how much He loves us. It is our turn to exult Him to High Heaven! With all our heart, mind, soul, and strength we should turn up the volume with incredible praise! Get out the bull horns and praise His name to everyone!

Truly, if we are sincerely grateful to Him for the many gifts in our lives then are we not compelled to give Him the high praises? When we do, we deepen our relationship with God.

When we are more attentive in reading scripture as well as engaging in the prayers of the Mass, we put ourselves in a better disposition to take in their meaning and hear God’s personal message to us. When we take time to meditate, even better, contemplate on what God wants us to hear from Him, this helps us more clearly understand His direction to our mission in this life. Remember, we want to dominate the listening and then turn the volume up and exult Him with all the glory we can muster.

There is incredible untapped power in praising our God and He is all ears when we do. So, let’s dominate the listening of the Lord and then turn up the volume in praising the Lord, and Shine Like the Son. God bless you.