My wife came home with the words that every man wants to hear. “The car is making a strange noise when I turn.” Now being male, (just by genetic endowments all men immediately know what is wrong with a car) I headed for the garage to check the power steering fluid level. To my disappointment it was fine. So the next thing was to drive it so I could hear the noise and then make my instant diagnosis. Men are good at that. However, I turned this way and that and could hear nothing wrong. So she rode with me and said, “There. Don’t you hear it?” Only then did I hear a slight creaking sound. It was not what I was listening for. I was so predisposed with my analysis without evidence I could not hear what she heard. I was listening for something else.
So there it was. I was like the rest of humanity. I allowed my preconceived ideas to interfere with reality. We do it all the time. We come away from a situation and say, “Did you hear the nasty thing she said?” And our partner says, “No. I never heard that at all.” We run our religion and our politics and our relationships with others through our biased filter. We hear the things we want to hear and are deaf to what we don’t want to hear. If we don’t hear what we want we alter the truth to make it correspond to our preconceived notions.
I have had people accuse me of saying things in a sermon I know I never said. But they were so sure. They heard with their own ears. But I still never said it. When Jesus said, “Let him who has ears hear.” I think He was talking about dispensing with the filter.
Written by Roger Bothwell on Masrch 7, 2013
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org
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