It is said that if a person loses one sense, the others become sharper to make up for it. Someone who is blind will often be able to discern more through hearing and smell than someone who has all their senses. On a smaller scale, someone who is trying to concentrate on what they are seeing or reading might block their ears somehow, or someone who wants to concentrate on a taste or smell might close their eyes.
By ‘muting’ one sense, our other senses have the capacity to process more meaning they become more effective. A similar thing happens in a church in lent. Traditionally, the colours are more muted (although the purple often used today doesn’t always fall under the muted category…), flowers aren’t used to brighten the building, wordy ‘Gloria’s’ are replaced with simpler ‘Kyrie’s’ (Lord, have mercy) and ‘Alleluia’s’ used to decorate verbal worship are dropped until Easter. Without these elaborations, as wonderful and joyful as they are, the church enters a more sombre period with a sharper focus on relationship with God and what is getting in the way. It is often a time of prayer and fasting, of repentance, of turning around and returning to God.
By muting other area of our worship and other distractions within the building, we can more clearly focus on rebuilding an intimate relationship with God. Jesus has already made that possible through the events of Good Friday, we just need to empty our hands and grasp it.
Are there distractions around you that you need to mute temporarily? Are you holding things that are stopping you embracing the relationship God wants to have with you? What can you do to change that?
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