I want to invoke a couple of historical individuals to show how importantly they viewed their inability to hear and see as key components of their success.
One was a deist, Thomas Edison, the inventor and businessman, and the other a beloved Christian sister: Fanny Crosby, who was known to have written thousands of hymns during her lifetime.
Both of them had the tenacity to perform their respective roles over and over again to attain their desired results. Both of them attributed that tenacity to their inability to hear, in the case of Thomas Edison, and see, in the case of Fanny Crosby.
When technology started to catch up with the challenges of being deaf, Edison was asked if he wanted to be treated in order to hear better. His answer was a resounding "no." Edison said that if he started to be able to hear he wouldn't be able to concentrate as he had in the past; one of the major reasons behind his success in his view.
Fanny Crosby said something similar:
It seemed intended by the blessed providence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank him for the dispensation. If perfect earthly sight were offered me tomorrow I would not accept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been distracted by the beautiful and interesting things about me.
So Edison didn't want to be interrupted be being able to hear, and Fanny Crosby didn't want to be interrupted by what she would be able to see.
The point in all of this is when we learn to practice the presence of Jesus Christ in a quiet manner, we gain access to something similar that Edison and Crosby did: the ability to focus sharply and long on the goals they had before them without interruption. That was a huge part of their success.
As it applied to walking effectively in Christ, that is the goal of learning to quiet ourselves before the Lord in order to enjoy His presence without distraction, and also to hear and see clearly what it is He may want to do with us at any one time.
We must get back to this practice on a daily basis, eventually attaining the goal of walking in His presence without interruption. The fact that most don't even consider this a thing to be attained, or that could be attained, testifies to the age we live in, where Christians believe more will be attained for Christ by hard work and endless strategies.
It is impossible to know, see and hear Christ when our souls are active. It's as simple as that. The lesson from Edison and Crosby is we must learn to quiet out God-given senses in order to fellowship with and hear the Lord clearly from the quiet of our spirits deep within our beings. There is no other way.
We must learn to allow the Lord Jesus Christ to shut down our soulish activity in order to be able to tune into the activity of the Lord deep within our beings.
In this article we're not going to touch much on the practicals of that (and learning this is very practical), but rather on setting out the fact that this is something that must be done, as it's a major part of the eternal purpose of God in Jesus Christ.
There is a seeking and a hunger we must ask Christ to give us for Him, as he's always wooing us to be quiet before Him in order to be able to shut out the world and its distractions in order to be close to one another.
It's out of that closeness that the rest will come. But if there is no quiet, there simply is no practical and real closeness with the Lord, and consequently, it's out of that innermost being where rivers of living water will flow out into this world while we're alive.
If we aren't quiet before the Lord, the Spirit of God will still be within us, but He will be locked in without a way to get out because of the way we are distracted by all that is around us.
Speaking from experience, I can testify to the fact that once you learn to live in the presence of the Lord without ever leaving that presence, the rest of the responsibilities of life are eased significantly by the Lord, who has called us to walk in this manner.
The way this can be achieved is by the willful shutting down of our senses while we wait on the Lord in a restful place. Continuing to practice that allows for that time of quiet to slowly extend, not only to times when we're alone with Him, but to all areas of life we are involved in.
This isn't an intellectual endeavor, but a spiritual one hidden deep in our inner man or spirit. That allows us to walk and talk and participate in life without ever leaving the presence of God. And it has absolutely nothing, in general, to do with feelings. It's completely an experience and walk of faith.
Using Crosby and Edison of examples are for the purpose of showing how they were able to live productive lives in light of the loss of hearing and sight. Picture what it would be like if we were to willingly allow the Lord to shut down those aspects of our lives without having to actually lose those faculties. It would be extraordinary the lives we could live on a daily basis when not taking in all the external stimuli around us.
I don't mean by that that we can't enjoy the beautiful creation of God, but what I mean is that is simply a part of a picture of who Jesus Christ is. He is far beyond this pointers to who He is; being the only reality there ever will be. That's why He Himself stated that He is the reality.
The place to begin with all of this is to recognize that we're not able to do this on our own. We must ask Jesus Christ to enable us to walk in this way of life. Only the Spirit of God within us can empower us to walk in this way.
And once you start to learn to successfully walk in this manner, from there it can be expanded to other brothers and sisters, who together can learn and share the inner and hidden things of Jesus Christ residing in our spirits and confirmed by the Holy Scriptures.
The creation is groaning for the manifestation of the sons of God, and imagine what it will be like when an untold number of Christian brothers and sisters learn to walk this way together in this world.
Ask Christ to show you a glimpse of what that could and will be like. It will be a great impetus to not only start your quiet journey to know the Lord as deeply as He wants you to know Him, but also to continue on that journey for the rest of your life on this earth, and on into the ages of ages.
One Caveat
One caveat on this story. I mentioned that Thomas Edison was a deist for no other reason than it was how he believed. I don't in any way agree with that, but the purpose of including him in the article was to show how he benefited from the loss of memory in being able to focus in a way he would not have otherwise been able to.
It's the asking of Christ to help us to quiet ourselves before Him so we can fellowship with Him without distractions that is the point, not anything else related to Edison's beliefs or person.
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