Listen Up

I went to church today.
A statement was made.
It has been bothering me all day.

The well-intended minister was speaking in regards to us as children of God and hearing God's purpose for our lives.

The statement(paraphrased): "You should be concerned with knowing what God is saying to you rather than feeling inadequate to hear Him."

The example: If your child is playing in the street, and a car is coming, are you going to quietly say, "John, please get out of the street" hoping he hears you? Or are you going to do everything you can to get his attention? Of course you'd be jumping and yelling.."Get out of the road!" That's how God is.

I see what he was trying to portray. I personally believe there's more under the surface that we all at one time or another have questioned when trying to listen to God.

As a parent, I want my children to hear my voice and respond instantly. This really stuck out to me this morning because this was a real life situation that happened to me when my son was two. We were outside in the front yard and before I knew it...he took off down the driveway headed towards the street. I instantly stood up and yelled, "Son, stop!" He did. A two year old. My child instantly heard and responded. Why? He knows my voice.
Now don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying that my children instantly do this every time. If you're a parent then you know the joys of telling your children to do something and they look at you like your Vanilla Ice trying to explain the difference between his beat on "Ice Ice Baby" and David Bowie's beat "Under Pressure."

I distinctly remember one time being in a church with 2000 other people listening to a message with my wife, Lora. Then I heard a sneeze. I leaned over to Lora and said, "that sounds like my dad." Unknown to us, he was in the building, too. Turned out, it was him sneezing. How did I recognize him out of a room of 2000 people? I spent time with him. A lot of time.


Jesus said, "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me." (John 10:27)
Again, going back to personal experience, I have found that the times in my life where I have asked God to talk to me, give me direction and it seems that He's not talking.....the truth is He was talking, I just forgot what He sounded like. I hadn't spent time with Him like I once did.

If you're like me and have struggled lately to hear from God, the good news is He does speak and the key to hearing Him...is spending time with Him. I assure you when you do that you'll hear His heartbeat and know what He wants for you. And He didn't have to jump around and yell at you.