Come to me with your ears wide open. Listen, and you will find life. I will make an everlasting covenant with you. I will give you all the unfailing love I promised to David.

Isaiah 55:3

So this week I drove over to Wake Forest for a consultation with my audiologist. Everything checked out well, they serviced my hearing aids and I stocked up on filters etc.

It turns out that I have been working on this issue since August of 2022, when my first in-depth screening and diagnosis confirmed what we already knew. I was missing too much of what was going on around me.

I didn’t follow through with a purchase that day because, as I put it to the hearing specialist, “We already have a mortgage.” But I did understand all the information, and the evaluation put me in a better position to make an informed decision later – which I did the next summer.

Now I wear the devices from first thing in the morning, all day through getting ready to put the light out at night. That’s generally 17 hours a day. I only mention this because I know people with hearing aids who only use them occasionally. But here’s the thing: the hearing loss is still real irrespective of utilizing the help.

This is important for a couple of reasons. First, there is a positive correlation between hearing loss and increased risk for dementia. If dementia is defined as the progressive erosion of intellectual functioning, and hearing loss cuts us off from stimuli like conversation and other environmental cues, then it follows that enhanced hearing acuity is a useful tool to have if we want to stay engaged.

The other huge benefit is in terms of relationships. If I do not hear clearly I can, A) either nod and smile benignly (not recommended), say “huh?” or “what?” or “Excuse me I didn’t quite catch that?” (better, but gets old fast), or ignore the conversation altogether. Then there is the popular but illogical response of increasing your own volume: “I CAN’T HEAR YOU!”

Recipe for disaster:

Consistently missing relationship cues is a long term prescription for disaster.

Having the hearing aids, but then deciding we are not going to use them is a lot like:

• Knowing we can pray several times a day, but only talking to God in an emergency or during church services.
• Or understanding that the Bible can be transformational but leaving it on the shelf to gather dust (maybe next to the hearing aids).
• Or identifying as “Christian” but living as if Jesus is Lord of Nothing.
• Or knowing in your heart that an active life of faith will heal you and bring peace into your life… but turning away because your pain is so familiar and you are fearful of change.

“Spiritual Dementia” – the progressive or persistent erosion of peace and grace and abundant life, the dimming of light, the chipping away and loss of remembered love.

If you think it sounds serious then you would be exactly right – DEREK

Spiritual Dementia –
The progressive or persistent erosion of peace and grace and abundant life, the dimming of light, the chipping away and loss of remembered love.