10 years ago, when I married my favorite man in the world... I was also blessed to gain a sister. I'd never had a sister before, and funny enough...neither had she! We already had one thing in common and over the years I've found many more ways our heart beat similarly. Most beautifully common is our desire to see the Kingdom of God come here on earth in the lives of those we're around. Erin has always inspired me in the way she loves mercilessly. I'm so thankful to have been given a sister who compels me to love like Jesus, and who loves my kids as if they were her own. It's such a honor to share her voice with you here today, contributing to our guest posts in honor of Better Hearing and Speech Month!
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“For I know the plans I
have for you," says the LORD. "They are plans for good and not for
disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11)
This is the quintessential verse for
giving a person seeking to make plans for the future or confused with a life
direction, even by the path immediately ahead. I was that person when Cole was
diagnosed with profound hearing loss.
At the time, I felt humbled and
fortunate to have a meaningful occupation, where I lived out the passion the
LORD had grown in my heart for our brothers and sisters experiencing
homelessness. I was living the dream – serving and working alongside them on a
daily basis through my job. But there was a constant stirring inside that kept
me from being settled into this as my future career. And compassion fatigue or
“burnout” is sadly nearly inevitable - a vice grip on my soul that showed me my
heart had grown weary of doing good. So, the wrestling began… for years.
It was a jolting experience to face
everyday that I could only show up to work out of obedience and faithfulness,
for my heart was distant from the passion that once compelled me. I suppose I
believed that once God gave me the passion, then it was permanent - after all,
it was for those close to His heart and in His kingdom. So I was confused when
this God-given passion went away and was seeking Him for my future. Jeremiah
29:11. Yet, I didn’t know how to pray.
I
love my nephews and nieces deeply. I know. I know. They’re not MY kids. But,
without my own in this season of my life, my heart deeply connects with these
four and I am thankful. Coley, or my little mushroom, has a special place in my
heart. Perhaps it was his ability to disarm strangers through his eyes or our
mutual love of exploration. Either way, Coley’s journey from silence to sound,
along with his ongoing courage, inspired and awakened my heart to a new passion.
He is the reason I have found and fallen in love with an occupation I never
would have known, a field whose sole mission resonates inside of me. Being
faithful to live in the present, rather than the past, movement of the Holy
Spirit, I stepped. Since taking this step of faith, the pathway to this new
mission field has been strangely ordered before me.
So,
I am studying to become a speech language pathologist and I have been for about
3 years now. Funny, I was never one for science; so, it was “trial by fire”
when the first course I took in this field was Neuroscience of Communication…
and I loved it! In fact, I would sit in my class taking notes about our nervous
system, the complexities of our brains and body, and leave singing worship to
our Creator about how we truly are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm
139:14). How could I not keep singing when I was seeing the work of His hands,
the delicate designs of the Ultimate Strategic Engineer?
I
love this field. I can’t say enough about it. I feel like a recruiter now,
wherever I go. We are called to constantly be learning, even when we are
practicing professionals. We can provide services in academic, private, or
medical settings. We serve humanity, from “diapers to diapers” as one peer
says. We listen, observe, cheer, evaluate, diagnose, research, counsel,
intervene, empower, and partner with our clients to find strategies they take
for the rest of their lives. Ultimately, though, in the midst of all of this
learning… the LORD is using this journey and this field to invite me into a
deeper relationship and to learn to pray.
When
Cole was implanted with his Cochlear Implants, my heart finally had faith to
believe in miracles. When I took my first audiology and hearing science courses,
the LORD was awakening me to hear His voice specifically, and showed me how it
was possible to hear Him corporately, as He promises in John 10:27 "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they
follow Me.” In my phonetics and
language development courses, I marveled at how important God must feel our
voice is, to allow it to develop over many years, shaped by the community of
voices around us, yet still maintaining our own voice’s uniqueness. In my
Anatomy and Physiology of Speech course, the number of scientific occurrences
required to merely result in one speech sound reflected to me how much our
Designer wants to hear our voice. “O Lord, hear
my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy!”
(Psalm 130:2) I truly relate to the crowd in Mark 7:37...
Amazed beyond measure, they kept on saying,
"He does everything well! He even makes deaf people hear and mute people
talk!"
There
are more countless experiences on this new journey where Christ has spoken to
me about who He is, how He sees us, and just how He much He wants a living relationship
with us. Most of all, as I learn how it is that we speak and hear, how I might
be able to empower another to give words to their thoughts and emotions, or how
they might listen more accurately, I am learning to speak and listen to my God.
Recently, He has shown me the verse after Jeremiah 29:11 “Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I
will listen to you.”
“For I know the plans I have for
you," says the LORD. "They are plans for good and not for disaster,
to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray
to Me, and I will listen to you.” Jeremiah 29:11-12
I
cannot wait to have my first clients this summer.
