Blind to being deaf

This post is inspired by a book that most people have heard or even read about:  The Magician's Nephew, part of The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis.  

I knew C.S. Lewis wrote several Christian books and heard that the Narnia books had an underlying Christian theme, which I saw in the movies.  I had only read a book or two of the series back when I was in elementary school, but I saw the whole collection in my sister's room one day and decided to give it a go between reading more academic and appropriate books for my age, and I'm sure glad that I did.  

Well, so far I have only read the first book, but there were many parts of the book (if you were looking for them)  that could be tied back to scripture.  I will share one portion that I thought was an incredible reminder for us all, and maybe particularly to those who are currently back-sliding.  

The scene entails a group of people who first enter the land of Narnia before everything was created.  I will forgo the minor details in order to get quickly to the point.  The group of people is comprised of a witch, a horse, a carriage driver, one of the main characters Digory, his magician wanna-be uncle, and Digory's friend Polly.  After arriving to a desolate Narnia (before its creation), this group encounters Aslan who is singing a song so magnificently that they could hardly dream that it could be real.  His song brought life to Narnia, and they were able to see creation right before their eyes.  

At last, animals were created, and they assembled around Aslan and began to speak for the first time.  From Digory's perspective, it was an amazing and wonderful sight to see and hear Aslan's creation.  In contrast however, Digory's uncle saw something completely different.  Rather than hearing beautiful music and a chorus of uplifted voices, he saw a group of animals bunched together and making their respective cries and bellows.  Rather than being amazed, he was horrified beyond belief.  Here's a excerpt from the book that paints the picture very nicely:

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   "We must now go back a bit and explain what the whole scene had looked like from Uncle Andrew's point of view.  It had not made at all the same same impression on him as on the Cabby and the children.  For what you see and hear depends a good deal on where you are standing:  it also depends on what sort of person you are.

   Ever since the animals had first appeared, Uncle Andrew had been shrinking further and further back into the thicket.  He watched them very hard of course; but he wasn't really interested in seeing what they were doing, only in seeing whether they were going to make a rush at him.  Like the Witch, he was dreadfully practical.  He simply didn't notice that Aslan was choosing one pair out of every kind of beasts.  All he saw, or thought he saw, was a lot of dangerous wild animals walking vaguely about.  And he kept on wondering why the other animals didn't run away from the big Lion.

  When the great moment came and the Beasts spoke, he missed the whole point; for a rather interesting reason.  When the Lion had first begun singing, long ago when it was still quite dark, he had realized that the noise was a song.  And he had disliked the song very much.  It made him think and feel things he did not want to think and feel.  Then, when the sun rose and he saw that the singer was a lion ("only a lion," as he said to himself) he tried his hardest to make believe that it wasn't singing and never had been singing- only roaring as any lion might in a zoo in our own world.  "Of course it can't really have been singing," he thought, I must have imagined it.  I've been letting my nerves get out of order.  Who ever heard of a lion singing?"  And the longer and more beautiful the Lion sang, the harder Uncle Andrew tried to make himself believe that he could hear nothing but roaring.  Now the trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed.  Uncle Andrew did.  He soon did hear nothing but roaring in Aslan's song.  Soon, he couldn't have have heard anything else even if he had wanted to.  And when at last the Lion spoke, and said, "Narnia awake," he didn't hear any words: he heard only a snarl.  And when the Beasts spoke in answer, he heard only barkings, growlings, bayings, and howlings...."

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When I read that, it really took jabs at my heart.  Like Aslan's song, many people hear the messages of God's word, but they can't believe that it is true, or maybe they "think about and feel things that they don't want to feel and ponder," such as convictions.  Like Uncle Andrew, many people close their ears to His words and His truth.  They hear the words, but they do not let themselves process the information or take it as reality.  They would rather push it away, think it is make believe, or conclude that the other people that are listening are crazy.  The scriptures warn us against this.  Hebrews 4:7 “...Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”Some people miss the whole point altogether, while others hear God's beautiful voice in the beginning that speak of love, truth, guidelines, sacrifice, and then begin to back-slide, only hearing rules, limitations, words of condemnation and maybe even oppression.  Instead of seeing God as a welcoming and loving creator, spiritually handicapped people may only see Him as something vicious; something that only elicits fear (like a roaring lion).  John 8:47:  "Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”  Do not handicap yourself and cause yourself to be unable to see and hear God's messages!  Rather than face the truth, the existence of God and therefore a Hell, people like Uncle Andrew prefer to deny what they see and hear and make believe what they think should be right, or how the world should work in their opinion.  Sorry, but a singing Lion is a singing Lion, whether you like it or not.  You can distort the truth; you can make yourself deaf or harden your heart to it, but unfortunately the truth has been sung, and you will have to face the consequences.   

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Here are some verses that talk about this:

"My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding— indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God."   -Proverbs 2:1-5

"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand."    -John 10:27-28

"Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David."  -Isaiah 55:2-3

“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you."    -Acts 7:1

“It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God."  -Matthew 4.4

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At the end of it all, Uncle Andrew no longer knew that he was deaf.  Sure he heard mutterings and growlings, but he was deaf to the truth.  He was deaf to the meaning behind the noise, in which case, he was blind to being deaf!  Many people ignore their convictions or what God is trying to say to them, and eventually, they do not know that they have become spiritually deaf and live each day without being able to see God acting in their lives or in the lives of people around them.  We all need to be careful that our hearts are not hardened to His word!  We can so easily become forgetful and begin to become numb or deaf to the truth without even realizing it!    

I find myself having to pray for a softening of my heart time and time again.  Yes, it is unfortunate that I sometimes get lost in the busyness of this world, but the important thing is that I listen to and respond to my convictions!  Thank God that I do not ignore His convictions all together and end up becoming blind to my hardened heart! 

With that being said, I pray that His children may be sensitive to His spirit and that those who are spiritually blind or deaf may be healed and once again see and hear what God is doing and what God has to say to us.

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"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." Deut. 6.