Listen!

Sometimes I'm such a poor listener. My awesome wife was telling me today that she wasn't feeling well. She said "I don't feel very well today." I commented "You might be coming down with something. I kind of feel like I am."

She gently reminded me, "but we weren't talking about you."

Point to Bunny. I had rushed right past on my way to the "World of Me"

A case in point toward an understanding of just how poorly we listen might be Moses. Did you remember what it took to get his attention?

1One day Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he went deep into the wilderness near Sinai, the mountain of God. 2Suddenly, the angel of the LORD appeared to him as a blazing fire in a bush. Moses was amazed because the bush was engulfed in flames, but it didn't burn up. 3"Amazing!" Moses said to himself. "Why isn't that bush burning up? I must go over to see this."

(Now be sure and note the next verse) - David

4When the LORD saw that he had caught Moses' attention, God called to him from the bush, "Moses! Moses!"

Even the Lord had trouble catching the attention of a man with nothing to look at every day but wilderness and sheep.

Our attention is so often distracted by the events of the day, or of pressing needs we feel only we can solve, that many times we get caught up in the "World of Me", where if we can't make it happen, it won't. The "World of Me" doesn't really leave room for God to act like He did with Moses. No, our world and our success in it, depends on us.

I have a word translated painstakingly from the original languages for that sort of thinking.

Baloney.

God can do more. He can do exceedingly more. God can do exceedingly more than we can ask or imagine. The world renowned theologian Shel Silverstein wrote this:
Listen to the MUSTN'TS, child,
Listen to the DON'TS
Listen to the SHOULDN'TS
The IMPOSSIBLES, the WON'TS
Listen to the NEVER HAVES
Then listen close to me -
Anything can happen, child,
ANYTHING can be.
[from Where the Sidewalk Ends]

Friends, just because you're caught up right now in a "World of Me" where you can't hear God, doesn't mean He's not speaking. Stop your struggling. Cease your schemes.

Listen! God can do! And He's thrilled to bless His children.

Grace!

David Wilson
www.newhopevalp.org