Spiritual Ear Hair

Have you heard about the cell phone ringtone that junior high and high school kids are using to keep teachers from discovering that they are using their cell phones in school? The pitch of this ringtone, called the mosquito tone, is too high for people over 25 to hear. So the kids can still send and receive text messages during class without the teacher knowing.

The mosquito tone was first developed in Great Britain to irritate teenagers who were loitering around convenience stores and keeping customers away by their loud and obnoxious behavior.

For his efforts, the developer of the mosquito tone, Howard Stapleton of Wales, was selected for the 2006 Ig-nobel Peace Prize, awarded annually by a group from Harvard University. (Check out www.improb.com/ig/ig-pastwinners.html.)

But, of course, the creative genius of the high school mind, given as it is to IADD (Intentional Attention Deficit Disorder) quickly turned a negative into a positive. Some kid simply figured out how to use that sound as his cell phone’s ringtone and — voilà — kids are downloading it by the millions.

How does the mosquito tone go un-detected by most adults older than 25?

Inside our ears we have tiny microscopic hairs that move with the impulses of incoming sound waves, and those hair movements send electrical signals to our brain. As we age, those hairs get worn down, actually damaged, so our hearing becomes less sensitive. We first lose the ability to detect the sounds of high frequencies. People over 25 can’t hear sounds above 16 kilohertz. (The highest note on a piano is 4 Khz. The mosquito tone is 17 Khz.)

This situation serves as an analogy to help us understand the common difficulty of detecting communication from God. According to scripture, the reality of God can be perceived in the wonders of creation, and all people — including nonbelievers — can detect this information. But if they fail to respond, they gradually lose the ability to sense God altogether. The apostle Paul talks about people’s hearts and understanding being “darkened” and losing “all sensitivity” (Romans 1:21, Ephesians 4:18).

They lose “spiritual ear hair” so to speak.

This same principle holds true even for Christians. Just as unbelievers can lose their ability to perceive God in the macro-messages of nature if they don’t respond appropriately to what they detect, believers can lose their sensitivity to God if we don’t respond appropriately to His specific promptings.

Of course, God has spoken and continues to speak to us about many topics. However, it stands to reason that we should especially note that which He speaks about most frequently, and consequently that which we have the most opportunity to neglect.

What might that be?

Money.

Jesus taught about the proper attitude and use of money and possessions as much or more than any other topic.

Unfortunately, we live in a mater-ialistic culture filled with incessant high-volume messages promoting self-indulgence. If we follow the promptings of our culture rather than the Lord, if we consistently yield to temptation to misuse our wealth and resources, our sensitivity to God’s voice is damaged.

It’s no wonder the majority of Christians find it difficult to detect the sound of God’s voice. It’s no wonder we have revised our generic evangelical theology and limited our definition of God’s communication to the written Word only. It’s no wonder we have stripped the verse “My sheep listen to my voice” (John 10:27) of any existential reality and reduced the voice of our Shepherd to a collection of written proverbs barely loftier than Ben Franklin’s quaint quotations.

Do you want to hear God’s voice? Then pay attention to what He has already said, especially about money.

For example, tithe your income starting at 10 percent. None of this, “I’ll start at three percent and work my way up.” Partial obedience is disobedience.

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth. Vast wealth among American Christians is being hoarded in inappropriately large savings accounts or laid up in expensive homes and cars in direct violation of Jesus’ command, and to the severe detriment of the church, world evangelization and the poor.

God said there should be no poor among you. Anyone with material possessions must have compassion and act. Look around your church. Any poor among you? Get rid of them, not by giving them the cold shoulder, but by giving them poverty-breaking help.

Sometimes God’s commands are almost as irritating as the mosquito tone, aren’t they? But that’s a good sign. You’ve still got some ear hair left!