Paul and His Moment of Hearing

Most know the story surrounding Saul's (Paul) conversion.  If not I would highly recommend taking a look at Acts 9:1-31.  Within that encounter with Jesus, something interesting takes place aside from his miraculous conversion of course, and Jesus bringing him to his knees.  In verse 9, it gives an interesting detail into something(s) that took place that seem to be crucial.

And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

Paul was without sight because of the radiance of Jesus' glory he had witnessed on the road to Damascus.  Some would see this period of blindness as a time of punishment for what Paul was doing to the Church of his day.  This doesn't seem to be the case because if you think about it, what better way to be able to reflect upon the glories of Jesus Christ, and to be in the perfect spot for listening than when your sight is gone, and you deny your sense of smell and taste the opportunity to interact with anything.  The only sense that was really left aside from touch was hearing which amounts to listening.  Paul had ideal opportunity to do nothing but listen as God began to work in his life.

I wonder in our crazy visual, social media, frantic, time consuming culture, if we as Christians were to just take a "time-out" and get somewhere alone and close our eyes and maybe even deny our other senses the opportunity to interact with anything, and simply allow the sense of hearing to do its work, as God speaks to us through His Word and through our prayers.  Would this have change in our behavior as much as it did in Paul's life?  Oh it is not meant to deny the sovereign hand of God that called Paul to himself (v. 15), but upon God's calling and God setting us apart for His Glory, we still need to simply stop and listen.  Sometimes God speaks with obvious answers but other times God whispers and we must be ready to listen and allow our sense of hearing to be tuned to His Word and His voice.