Film Friday Niki has perfect pitch and is a highly talented piano tuner. However he also suffers from hyperacusis and cannot bear loud noises. Niki’s hearing is so sensitive he is basically allergic to the outside world and has to wear two sets of ear protectors in order to function. But he discovers that his hypersensitive hearing also means he has the ability to crack safes by listening to the mechanism as he turns the dials. However, his newly-discovered talent leads him into the criminal underworld. And though safe-cracking pays better than piano tuning, the cost proves to be way higher too.
Talking can be overrated. We all do it so much, and there are many times when it leads to good things, and helps us to communicate and share life with others. We live in an age where we all like to air our views. But while talking is on the up, listening is on the decline. If others don’t agree then the tendency is to shut them down. Not to listen to their take on things.
And yet we are all designed to be people who never stop learning, never stop developing our understanding.
An old saying puts it like this – we have two ears and one mouth, so maybe we need to listen twice as much as talking. It’s not easy though, when I have something to say I want to broadcast it to as many people as possible! When I worked at the Lee Abbey Fellowship in North Devon, I learned so much from the guests who came each week. I talked a lot too, but I’m grateful for those times when I managed to shut up.
There are many moments in the Bible when God calls us to listen. Often that is through reading his word and pondering on it. Praying that we might find ourselves in it. We often talking about losing ourselves in a good book, but we can find ourselves in THE Good Book. May you have many moments when a story, or a line, or a word jumps off the page and into your being.
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