I work in an Ear, Nose & Throat practice which also houses an audiology department, which specializes in helping people hear better.  There is an awful lot of “What did you say??” and “Say that again, please” and “You have to speak up, I can’t hear you” going on every day.  To top that off, I also have radar ears – ears that strain to hear what’s going on around me so I don’t miss anything.  I guess this could also be categorized as nosiness, but I prefer to call it being aware.  Right?

This can cause problems for me because if the person in front of me, the patient, is telling me something and my ears are also listening to the conversation behind me so I know what’s going on with my co-workers, I invariably have to ask the patient to repeat themselves because I lose focus.  I’m not so great at multi-task listening.  There are times, too, when several of us at the front desk are dealing with several hard of hearing people and the noise level grows so that it’s tricky to hear what we need to hear from the patient we’re trying to help.

I need to just keep my ears “turned” toward the person who’s most important in that moment, the patient, and listen intently just to their voice.

I just read from John 10:27 this morning in which Jesus said Continue reading →