It's not been the easiest thing...dealing with deafness. It's been a slow, progressive loss since I was seventeen years old. It was daunting to face the world in silence and attempt to achieve dreams and life goals in a hearing society that expected me to hear, too. It probably took me a bit longer to complete the task of "achieving a life dream" without hearing -- but it didn't make it impossible.

It was an obstacle, no doubt. Hearing loss robbed me of something besides sound, it robbed me of self-integrity and confidence and esteem. It made me lonely and insecure and full of fear and anxiety.

But I digress, God helped me find the "silver lining" in the midst of my storm. In the valley of despair, I was lost for a long time. God helped me find my way out of there. He took me to the mountain peak. He showed me mercy and brought me to victory. He gave me His grace.

In the silence, is not only where I got to know myself better, but most importantly, it's where I got to know God. I think perhaps when there is so much noise, it drowns out that "quiet place" where we go -- and where God is -- where He meets us.

It's like that song "Meet Me Halfway"...if you go to your quiet place, your center, where your truth is...God will meet you there.

That's what losing my natural hearing taught me -- it's not in the sound we find the answers, it's in the silence. The noise doesn't make life beautiful, the quiet does. When you're okay with being alone in your quiet place, you finally realize...you were never alone at all.

Deafness made me lonely, so that in that silent world of loneliness, I could find God and realize how He was always by my side. #Godworth