Disconnected

My ear is still plugged up! I tried everything I could think of yesterday. Drops, irrigation, heat, allergy medicine, nose spray. My wife suggested baby pee this morning. I have never heard of this but apparently it is an old wives tale to put baby pee in your ear to relieve pain and pressure. I PASSED ON THIS ONE! I may be desperate, but I am not crazy!

My clogged ear has caused some problems. For instance, I didn't hear the alarm this morning. I was laying on my left side when the alarm went off. My good ear was muffled in the pillow while my completely useless ear was left to tend to the listening. I NEVER HEARD IT GO OFF. My wife who is typically deadwood in the morning, who usually relies on me to wake her up, ended up waking me to tell me the alarm was going off.

The second observation that I have made is that my inability to hear has made me feel completely disconnected. Last night I had the opportunity to have dinner with my daughter, Lily, all by ourselves. It was a real struggle to have conversation. I had a terrible time hearing her and she had a hard time hearing me. I had a very hard time gauging my speaking volume. We were in a crowded restaurant and I didn't want to be that "shouting guy" who didn't realize how loud he was talking but I ended up talking too softly most of the time for Lily to hear me. We struggled through it, but for me at least, I felt disconnected from Lily and everyone around me.

This must be the way unchurched people feel when they come to a church that doesn't meet them where they are. I wanted to connect with Lily. But I couldn't understand what she was saying a lot of the time. I wanted to understand it...and I believe that what she was saying was important and that I would have benefitted from hearing it.....but there was a disconnect. I believe that God put in each of us the need and desire to know him. Unchurched people come into churches all over the country every week trying to meet that need. There is something inside of them that tells them that it is important and that they will benifit from hearing....but there is a disconnect. Churches, sometimes knowinging, sometimes not, create the disconnect. They use "churchy" words that the unchurched don't understand. They set requirements of "goodness" that people must meet before being accepted into the church. They design liturgical gauntlets that you must go through to feel like you are participating. Todays church has got to constantly examine EVERYTHING that we do on Sunday morning to eliminate any obstacles that prevent unchurched people from connecting. From the parking lot, to finding out how to get your children to the right place, to an inviting atmosphere that says "I don't care what you have done, or where you have been, I am glad you are here." God is in the business of changing lives....we need to create an environment that makes hearing from God ACCESSIBLE to EVERYONE. Eliminate the disconnects.