Faith Comes by Hearing

This has been a challenging week.  I'm not referring to anything that has been happening in the world.  I'm not talking about the fluctuation in the weather or the stock market.  I'm not even talking about the still high cost of eggs (and what are our plans for dying Easter eggs this year?  Someone suggested using potatoes.  I'm not seeing an Easter Spud Hunt.)

No, I'm talking about something that is really troubling in my life and there is nothing that I can do to naturally overcome it: it's hearing loss.  Yeah.  You heard it right.  Hearing loss.  This past week, it seems like my hearing has taken a turn for the worse.  I think it is the barometric pressure - a change in the weather patterns.  It could also be the tinnitus which I have self-diagnosed myself as having (I will know more in a couple of weeks because I have an appointment with a hearing specialist at Mayo).  I'm really hoping that this is a short-term deal, but I don't know.  It's tough to grow older, I guess.

Like I said, this week has been challenging.  And frustrating - for me and for others around me.  No one appreciates having to repeat themselves just because I haven't heard them.  They give you this exasperated look like you haven't been paying attention when you've been doing everything you can to try and hear everything that's being said.  And as one who is dealing with the loss, it's hard to sit in a room with others talking and not being able to participate because you cannot hear.

It's not a great feeling all round.  Nobody's happy.

Apart from setting up an appointment with a hearing specialist who can change the course of my life, there really isn't much I can do.  I can turn to scripture for help, but there isn't much that said in the Bible about someone who is losing their hearing.  The Bible doesn't explicitly address hearing loss as a physical condition, but it does use the imagery of "deaf ears" metaphorically to describe spiritual blindness or a refusal to listen to God's word.  While that might be timely for the world we live in right now, it's not really applicable to what I am dealing with.

I could study what it means to be patient.  The Bible encourages believers to be patient in trials, to wait upon God, and practice patience in their relationships.  Key passages highlight patience as a fruit of the Spirit and a path to peace and understanding.  One example of a biblical passage about patience comes from Romans 12:12: "Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer".  I certainly could and will follow that advice.  

I can even appreciate how God makes it a point to single out the older adults among us (which I am now a part of) - listen to these words from Isaiah 46:4: "God promises to continue carrying his people through old age, stating, "And I'll keep on carrying you when you're old.  I'll be there, bearing you when you're old and gray.  I've done it and will keep on doing it, carrying you on my back, saving you" (paraphrased from The Message).  I know I have the gray hairs that are a requirement for this passage!

These are all helpful.  I know I will not always have weeks like this.  I'm actually looking forward to the results of my appointment and what it might mean - to hear clearly again.  And to my friends or strangers who are reading this post, I offer a word of encouragement and advice - please, do not take your hearing for granted.  It is just one of the precious gifts of being human.

You hear me?

The Betamax

It was sometime around the early 1980's, I believe, when one of my best friends at the time worked as a radio DJ and he had just started working at relatively new outlet store selling a machine called a Sony Betamax Video Cassette Recorder.  Mike must have been a good salesman because even though VHS had just come out, he insisted the Betamax was the perfect fit for our recording television show needs (up until they invented something that could record a television show, I didn't even know I had that need).  

So, I bought one.  A brand-new Sony SL-20 Betamax.  Over the years it has served its purpose - recording shows, movies, sports events - playing camera recorded events and the like.  But the VHS was a cheaper model which really took hold of the market and Beta taped movies became harder to find.  We eventually bought a VHS video recorder, and the Betamax was rendered idle, sitting unused for years.  Because we had recorded some family memories on Beta tapes, we couldn't get rid of the Betamax.  Plus, there wasn't a really good market for it.  So, it kept moving when we moved.

Advanced technology eventually caught up with the VHS companies... Compact Disks or CDs entered the market and before you knew it, VHS tapes were in danger of becoming obsolete as well.  CDs flooded the stores and homes became inundated with this new way of watching entertainment.  But it didn't take too long before the CDs were on the outs - the digital age had arrived and live streaming became the order of the day.  No more trips to Blockbuster or mailing the movies back to Netflix.

But what of the lonely Betamax?  My machine was still in pretty good condition - or so I thought.  I recall there were some precious memories on some of the Beta tapes and I wanted to convert them to digital files so that the kids and grandkids could enjoy watching them.  But there was a problem.  Who knew that moving eight times in 34 years would cause a machine to have some issues?  So, I found a guy who fixes these kinds of things (for a pretty high cost, I will say).  But I couldn't put a price on a memory now, could i?

I sent in the machine, and it just came back after about three weeks.  Works just a good as new.  Even looks new!  See the picture - mine is on the bottom - the brand-new model is on the top.  It was worth it because it had reminded me of a time in my life that I hadn't really forgotten but was grateful for the video reminder.   

The pictures you see below are just some of those precious memories. taken over one Labor Day weekend in northern Minnesota.  Yeah, they are a bit on the discolored side, but that is due to the age of the tape.  Goodness, those Beta tapes are over forty years old!  I took a few still shots of some of the kids' moments that are etched in my own memory.  The thing that is really cool is I see their movements, I hear their voices, I marvel at how small and precious they were at the time.  I would almost pay any price to preserve those memories.

Because kids grow up.  They have their own families and memories to make - as it should be.  This is not a lament over lost time or where has the time gone.

I am just grateful I have a reminder that tells me where part of the time was spent... good family time.  Spent together.  No devices in the way of conversation.  No worries but each day in and of itself.  It was a simpler time.  It was a joyous time.  Don't get me wrong, we had our problems of the day, like any other family.  But we had so many good days.  We watched our children learn, grow and become young people.  I am reminded of part of it because my friend Mike sold me a Betamax.  

Turned out to be a timely investment.  Thanks, Mike!