As we have all gotten lots of practice with cameras and microphones and editing software, we’ve all encountered some bumps. Last week I tried to record some music while wearing headphones plugged into the sound system. This week Chip tried recording his own voice with the headphones on. Neither of us were successful the first time. There is just enough delay in the signal getting back to the headphones, you get confused trying to listen to yourself in the room and listen to yourself on the headphones (a split second behind). Keeping any sort of speaking/singing rhythm is difficult to impossible. It’s like that little echo you’ll get in a Bluetooth phone conversation, but a thousand times worse. You just can’t get anything done if you continue to try to listen to all these voices coming back at you. You have to flip a switch in your brain and only listen to the right voice and filter everything else out.
I didn’t mean to become a recording expert. I also didn’t mean to get hung up in the book of 1 Samuel. But Samuel had to learn how to listen to the right voice as well. When he hears a voice repeatedly, Eli has to tell him the correct response: “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.” Most of us are familiar with that story, or at least that line. But I love how that part of the passage ends, with God telling Samuel he’ll do something that will “make both ears of anyone who hears it tingle.” May we listen to the right voice. May our ears tingle.
