A memory dump is needed

Hey, does anyone else out there ever feel like your life is just unraveling a bit? There are days where my ends seem a little frayed - how about yours? Those days don't always come that frequently, but when they do, man oh man...they can leave you exhausted! Some of mine come in the form of being there when the Department of Health walks in for an unannounced inspection or complaint investigation when I am the sole occupant of the office! Then maybe there is that moment when you see deadlines fast approaching, but you have put off that project you just didn't want to get to - now it looms like a spider coming closer and closer while you have no shoes on! You know the feeling - that moment of panic and dismay - wondering how you will ever get past it! What we must always recognize is that God is still in control - even when we have lost it!

Going through a long line of prophets, God has been addressing our ancestors in different ways for centuries. Recently he spoke to us directly through his Son. By his Son, God created the world in the beginning, and it will all belong to the Son at the end. This Son perfectly mirrors God, and is stamped with God’s nature. He holds everything together by what he says—powerful words! (Hebrews 1:1-2 MSG)

I put that last portion of the passage in bold font for a purpose - we need to hear and appreciate the importance of those words. There is also something I'd like us to recognize from this passage - God speaks to us through various means - he doesn't just use one tool in his box! If we cannot see something one way, he helps us see it via another venue. If we don't heed his wisdom when it comes in one form, he delivers it in a different form, but it is the same wisdom! The very nature of God is to oversee and secure everything in his creation. That includes us. In fact, we are probably the most significant part of his creation - for we were created in his image and he desires for that image to always reflect him well.

What's God been saying to you? Those words aren't meant to tickle our senses - they are meant to hold us together and give us powerful anchorage. The words of God are not aimless or without purpose - they are creative and sustaining. As such, when God speaks, we need to listen! That's not easy, though, because we sometimes don't recognize the vessels he uses to speak to us. He even uses the looming deadline, unannounced visitors, and creepy crawlers of the world to speak into our lives! The thing is that we have to be open to hearing how he speaks through these various vessels. The openness of our heart is directly linked to the openness of our ears. We can hear and not do - link between ears and heart being broken somewhere. The broken part is usually our mind!

The mind is instrumental in trust because it is the center of our memory. What the memory files away often becomes the most influencing factor when the vessel God uses begins to speak to us. We fashion some type of response - sometimes even before he finishes speaking - all because of what we have stashed away in the recess of our minds. The mind is like the conduit between the ears and the heart. If the conduit is closed off or clogged, his word isn't getting through! Sometimes we need a memory dump in order to let his word get through to the part of us that most needs to hear it - our heart! Just sayin!