A Bionic Step Forward

Evening of surgery with my son

As a child, I loved watching reruns of the television show The Six Million Dollar Man. I was so captivated by it that my parents got me an autographed photo of Lee Majors, who starred in it. Never would I have imagined that one day I would have any type of bionic device implanted in me. And I certainly didn't see that coming when I started production on this film about knowing God through pain and suffering. Yet, here I am. On April 10, I underwent surgery for a cochlear implant (made by Advanced Bionics) in my right ear and took a major step on my hearing journey.

I didn’t celebrate joining this “bionic” club. In fact, as some of you know, it has been a very difficult journey. In this previous post, I shared about my hearing impairment and the struggle of a sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSHL) in June. In November and December that followed, I experienced two more SSHL events. (One as I was traveling to interview Dr. Jeff Myers of Summit Ministries.) As you can imagine, these events have presented many challenges during the film production, but God has been faithful and continued to provide.

My ENT and surgeon, who I have been with for years and have great respect for, highly recommended that I consider a cochlear implant for my bad ear (my right), which has such poor speech recognition. I’ve been relying on my left ear only for years, but with all the recent SSHL events in that ear, its reliability is now in question.

A signed photo from Lee Majors

We got a great report after the surgery. Recovery has gone well but has been slower than I expected. My wife, Susan, keeps reminding me to be patient. With recovery has come some bouts of loud tinnitus and some vertigo. Now, I’m just very anxious for my activation which happens this week. At activation, the implant is turned on and the next phase begins. It’s a process that may take months or even a year to teach my brain how to hear and interpret the new electronic signals. There will be a lot to get used to since things will sound different than they do through our God-designed hearing.

We are extremely grateful to have had this opportunity and appreciate all of the prayers that have gotten us to this point. I have said many times throughout this journey that the words shared by our For A Purpose cast in our interviews have encouraged and brought me a great deal of comfort. Those days that I walked through the SSHL events were dark. I had so many questions. It was puzzling and frustrating, but God continued to teach me what it is to trust in Him. I’ve been reading through Psalms lately, and Psalms 40:6-8 (ESV) got my attention. “In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear…. I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” 

In Hebrew, “open ear” means “ears you have dug for me," which is believed to refer to a passage in Exodus 21 of a slave who loves his master so much that he has his ear pierced to signify his choice to stay and serve him forever. I think of other familiar phrases such as “who has your ear” or “lend an ear” which signify WHO we are listening to and paying attention to.

My hearing is more than just listening to sound waves. It’s about WHO I’m paying attention to and WHO I’m devoted to. I’m grateful for how the Lord has brought me into a deeper relationship with Him through all of this.  Please pray for continued healing and recovery and that we would trust and to lean into God during each and every step of this personal and film-making journey.

There is much to update you on concerning the production of For A Purpose, but I will save those details for subsequent posts.

God Bless,

Jim