"You cannot hear what you do not understand!" - Dr. Edward Deming - Pentecost

"You cannot hear what you do not understand!" - Dr. Edward Deming - Pentecost

It is not always about technology when we ask, "Can You Hear Me Now?"  It works well for selling cell phones and allegiance to a cellular network, but even before mico waves sent phone messages, images and music through the air, the question, "Can You Hear Me Now?" still had relevance.  I know of people with wearing hearing aides that are very subtle, yet very deliberate in turning their "ears" off or to such a low setting that they cannot hear the person/spouse talking right there in their face.  An accident, I don't think so!  It was deliberate and calculated.  In other times,  I have seen people hear an extensive amount of information presented to them that flew so high over their heads because no one in the room connected to the data, the topic, or the speaker.  "Nobody Heard Nothin!"  In fact, an opening private side comment by the person next to me was, "That person must be so brilliant because I have absolutely no idea what that guy is talking about!"

Even as cliche as it has become in the last decades of business teaching.  Paradigms have their way of "blinding -muting" primal and important information to the eyes and ears of those who really needed to hear and see what was being conveyed.  They just didn't get it because of stored experience that mentally told the person, "This information is wrong to our patterned models of experience-past and you don't need to know or worry about hearing or remembering any of this!"  The inner persona just turned off the lights and the sound and the person, "Just Didn't Hear It!"

A lot of this plays out in multiple contexts and scenarios of business between leaders and staff, research and development departments and production line personnel, and the Paradigm freeze moves up and down, and laterally throughout business, organizations, and management suites/boardrooms regardless of size, tech-savvy-ness, production levels, accounts receivable, and stock values.  Information is passed along, and a limited amount of those who hear it, retain it, understand it, or utilize it.

Base lesson; you have to "intentionally" listen to hear and you need to utilize an interest in becoming proficient in the source and means that information, data, and messages are offered.  Technology is part of it.  Understanding languages is part of it.  Making yourself available is a major part of it.  But being engaged in a level of relationship whether it be with a friend, loved one, family member,colleague, peer, long-time-friend, or new acquaintance is the major part of any transfer of information, knowledge or humorous quip.

Is this all new to our day and time?  I don't think so!  It was so important for God's message to be conveyed to as many as possible as quick as possible and as far and wide as possible, that God wanted to make sure that We Could Hear Then, and Now! To do that, God had to move beyond the dependence of men trying to convey the message on their own.  The message needed some power and impact beyond that alone.  God chose people who were open to a new power in their lives, not only their spirit, but a Holy Spirit.  It did a bit better.  But still there was a need for a means to convey the message better; the choice, a family tie, a Son.  Jesus did His level best to be as much to as many in as many of places as a Messiah could muster.  Yet, even with the Good News as portrayed and taught by Jesus, the people surrounding Him most of the time, including the inner circle of Apostles, "Couldn't Hear the Message Because They Didn't Understand!"

It was akin to a fantastically tasteful sauce, sliding off a Teflon coating and onto the ground.  Something was missing in the lives of the "hearers" that was needed to make a Holy Message stick with intended people to become "Holy".  The answer, give them a Holy Spirit also.  One that counters the human temptation to "Paradigm freeze" the New Good News and usher the words and insights from one ear out the other with no sticking time.  A Holy Spirit that could capture Holy Messages, and reroute them into the soul, mind and manifest them into the actions of the body.

It wasn't an accident that this took place in Jerusalem when it did.  It was the feast of the Gathering of the Sheaves, the first cuttings of the crops and the offering of the firstborns of cattle and livestock. It was a "Stewardship Offering Sunday" compliant with the Old Testament Covenant.  Giving something that you raised or grew to God as an offering was the intent.  That is why people from around the world came to Jerusalem for this important day after Passover and in the Spring.  It had all the potential of an Old Testament-Internet Event.  The challenge, how do you speak Good News to an assembly of multi-linqual citizens of the span of the then known world?  Easy, choose a handful of fearful, yet possible faithful people that experienced the Living Son of God in Jesus, who were promised and told to hang out till another present from God was received, empower them with a Holy Spirit, and then kick them out into the streets with the ability to speak and convey the Message of Grace and Salvation in languages that they didn't even know nor have a proficiency.  It Worked!

It works today!  If you are open, willing, and desirous to receive this same Holy Spirit, it can be yours for the asking!  It will open your eyes and ears and mouth and inner perceptions to a level that is in this world like everyone else, but you will no longer be " of this world".  It will be different in what you say, how you act, and how you see/experience the world and those around you!  The intent for us even today as it was with early Apostles, centuries ago, because of God's gift to us of His Holy Spirit, We Can Hear and Understand When God Speaks to Us on a Daily Basis and That is Good News! Due to this, we can be the best, in our loved and personal relationships, our business connections, our local community ties, and most certainly, our places of worship and faith.