Ponder this...

How amazing are the deeds of the Lord! All who delight in him should ponder them. Everything he does reveals his glory and majesty. His righteousness never fails. (Psalm 111:2-3)

The instruction given is to PONDER God's deeds. Whenever we choose to ponder God's work around us, within us, and even through us, we are actually taking notice of his glory and majesty. The deeds of the Lord are so vast that even if we were to take an entire day just 'pondering' him and his work around us, we still couldn't stop 'pondering' because we couldn't account for all of them.

Pondering is when we are exercising careful thought. It isn't just a casual 'moment' - it is purposeful, requiring all our attention. It is often what we don't do before making decisions so many times, but what would have served us well if we had! If we take the time to ponder God's direction first, we might make wiser choices from the get-go. It is often the times of considering how Christ acted, what he did while on this earth, how he treated others, and who he sought direction from that reveals to us the direction God would have us to take.

God-directed lives have adopted this concept of 'pondering' as a means of getting to know God better, but also as a way of sensing his direction for their lives. The very next verse in this passage asks, "who can forget the wonders he performs" because when we actually take the time to 'notice' God's actions on our behalf, we might just find a few of those 'wonders' in our own lives right this very moment. 

The Lord has been so very gracious and kind toward each of us. From giving us the time and space to come to know him, seeking his forgiveness, and asking him into our lives, to the discovery of every tidbit of truth he wants to make alive within us, he is gracious. He is at work - where he works, wonderful things are produced. Just sayin!

In the right position?

Come, let us bow down and worship him! Let us kneel before the Lord who made us. He is our God, and we are the people he cares for, his sheep that walk by his side. Listen to his voice today... (Psalm 95:6-7)

We are to approach, not with pride, but in humility. Not with the list of good deeds we have managed to accomplish, but with the trust that our lack of goodness will be met with the fullness of his grace. If we are to come - to approach or move toward - we have to a set course of purpose. Let us bow - we are to incline ourselves so as to be in the position of reverence; to yield ourselves to God alone. Let us worship him - honor and adore him because none other should be our focus. Take a knee in submission so as to no longer be in a position to run. Before him, we are waiting on him. Quite a beginning to our study today, isn't it? There is no longer any running - but yielded spirit, open heart, and focused attention. This is how we approach the throne of God.

He is our God and we are the people he cares for. We often gloss right over the words of this passage as though they were just nice "poetry" or "kind words". We miss what God wants us to get into our hearts and minds about who we are in his eyes. As we approach his throne, it isn't in our own effort, but in the beauty of his grace. What is more remarkable is that by humbling oneself we become even more blessed by his hand! As we approach with yielded and expectant heart, we are met with outpourings of his care and "carefulness" over our lives. He is the giver of both the correction which makes our path certain and straight, and the grace and love to walk therein! Without God's care we'd be in quite a mess in our lives! God expects us to actually spread his grace around - not just enjoy it all by ourselves. 

We frequently walk ahead of God - getting our timing all messed up because we think we have it all figured out. Then we get a little behind him in matters where we find it a bit more of a struggle to "get on board" with what he desires to do in or through our lives. If we can just find the "cadence" of walking alongside him, we'd be much more satisfied in our walk. There is something of strength garnered from being side-by-side in the walk, not struggling to lead, nor lagging behind in frustration or fear. God's desire is for us to not "keep up" but to be "kept" alongside. God doesn't want us out front, boasting in our own strength, or being pushed along to get us moving in the first place. He doesn't want us lagging behind, for he knows the enemy often attacks from the rear! How is it we actually hear God's voice? We need to be in a position to hear it! I think position and attitude is quite important when it comes to listening and to being heard! Just sayin!

Applying what we know

If you stop learning, you will forget what you already know. (Proverbs 19:27)

It has been a good day whenever I learn something new. Ever had to learn a lesson you just didn't want to learn? I have - too many times to count! Those are the ones that are tough to learn, but necessary if we are to grow up into strong and "survivable" creatures. I had to learn to brush my teeth, or decay would ensue. I had to learn to tie my shoes because I would trip over the laces if untied. These were probably some of the easier lessons to learn in this life - the ones I can say I have mastered. Then there are the tougher ones - like learning to keep my mouth shut at times when less words are better than more, or how to navigate risky relationship paths that need to be traversed, but which are pocked with all kinds of landmines! You know those lessons I am referring to - for you have your own. In those moments, it would be easiest to just stop learning - to say the learning would be too hard. Yet, if we want to grow up into strong and "survivable" creatures, we need to learn even the tough ones!

The hardest part of learning is being teachable. The idea of being teachable implies we are willing to be exposed to risk. It is indeed risky business to put ourselves out there - to be in the places of uncertainty where we see our abilities put to the test. I used to dread it when a teacher would call on me for an answer. Why? It was putting me in out there - I was required to show how well I had been listening and it often revealed my ability to "learn" the stuff they had taught! This was easy when it came to the things I actually enjoyed learning, but for the harder stuff - it wasn't so fun. Learning comes by study, instruction, and experience. Study is when we spend time getting into the facts about something we are interested in learning. Instruction is more of the example by which we learn - we see something modeled and then we try to replicate what we have seen. Experience is when we actually take the parts we study and the stuff we have seen modeled and put them together into the practical expression of that "skill".

To be truly teachable, one has to be willing to incorporate all three parts of learning into their day. Leaving out any of these parts is going to "skew" what it is we will learn. If we don't study, we won't have all the facts we need to make good decisions as to how to act, where or when to take action, or even when it is best to just wait a little to observe the outcome. When I was taking chemistry classes, I learned about acids and bases. One is quite "benign", and the other is quite "harsh". Acids can cause a huge reaction when mixed with things which "interact" with the "harshness" of this product. Although bases seem quite benign, they have a way of interacting with other "harsher" products - bringing "balance" to the equation. Too much of one or the other can actually result in something quite unpleasant. I remember stinking up the science lab with something akin to the smell of rotten eggs with a particular sulfur reaction!

If we don't ever have the chance to see the object of our learning modeled, it might be harder to grasp it. This is probably why cookbooks and cooking websites are filled with all those delightful photos of how the meal should look when you have it all done. Learning to have the meat, potatoes, and veggies all finish at the same time is quite a different matter, though! One must apply some of the knowledge they have learned by both "modeled" behavior/actions and what they find in the books (studied learning). This is why the recipe will give us those instructions on how long something takes to reach the desired level of perfection, not just the instructions on how to bread it, fry it, and serve it. The instructions have been provided so we can model the same "perfection" as they produced in the photograph!

When we take our studies and combine them with modeled behavior or actions, we have a better chance of actually producing "similar" outcomes. Here is the word of warning - we might just not produce the "exact" same outcomes - it might only be similar. Until we repeatedly produce the same reliable outcome each and every time, we cannot say we have gone to the level of being experienced with the learning. Experience is the level where we finish what we start and do so with pretty reliable consistency. Most of life is about learning the lessons - we just have to combine the skills of study, instruction, and experience. In time, we will master those things we are willing to apply ourselves to - we just have to be consistent in our application! Just sayin!

Life Hack #22: Listen Again

Life Hack #22:

It’s better to be wise than strong; intelligence outranks muscle any day. Strategic planning is the key to warfare; to win, you need a lot of good counsel. (Proverbs 24:5-6)

Back in the day, it was not uncommon to witness kids squaring off on the playground, then announcing: "My dad can beat your dad any day"? One child trying to prove something - that he or she has an advantage. Advantage is something we have been trying to "get" ever since we took our first breath. We are after any opportunity or circumstance we can "work our way" into to ensure success or a particular desired end. I remember learning some hand-to-hand combat maneuvers in the military, somehow thinking knowing the maneuvers would give me some advantage over another if the situation arose. I know I would have zero advantage over a black belt in karate, let alone a 250-pound angry military man! Why? What I was putting my faith in as "advantage" was pretty unreliable! Advantage is really not in what we possess or what we declare to be at our disposal - it is in what becomes an ingrained, worked-in, practiced part of our daily lives.

Advantage is really determined by things other than military might or the size of your muscles (or your dad's). We must realize the advantages we have in this life are entirely because of who and what we know. We have the wise counsel of scripture - giving us an advantage over those who rely upon their own devices to get through in this life. We have the determined tutelage of the Holy Spirit in our lives - giving us the advantage of receiving immediate feedback before any decision is made. We also have the excellent advice of wise counselors - those in the faith who have walked where we walk today and have learned a thing or two along the way. Advantage is in who and what we know - the way knowledge is a powerful tool in our hands only when we put it into practice enough to know it is tested and true.

To win, you need a lot of good counsel - not just one word you will hang your hat on out there on the playground. I cannot tell you the times I have just listened to the first voice that came along and found myself "burned" in the end. At times, things turned out miserably for me, while at others, they just kept getting worse as time went on. This tendency to get "burned" comes from the over-reliance upon that "first voice" information. We get burned because we did not use the advantage of putting that "voice" to the test. 

There is much wisdom in not always listening to the first voice we hear. I don't think God is affronted by me asking if it is his voice I am hearing, because he knows I am really saying I don't want to go into something blind - I want him with me! I begin to recognize the voice of my Lord, but at first, I may find myself questioning if it is him. Why does time make a difference? In time, I learn how he speaks, when he speaks, what things he values and directs my life toward. It comes by spending time with him and listening to the counsel he gives through the Word, sound biblical teaching, and even a worship song. Time with him develops a set of trusted principles in my life which I can refer to when considering the next step to be taken. In other words, I have a set of "counsel" principles which I know to be wise and trusted - foundational to my life. We can go a long way in this life with "true advantage" when we allow the counsel of the Lord to be the guiding influence of our lives. Just sayin!

Custom Edition

By your words I can see where I’m going; they throw a beam of light on my dark path. I’ve committed myself and I’ll never turn back from living by your righteous order. Everything’s falling apart on me, God; put me together again with your Word. Festoon me with your finest sayings, God; teach me your holy rules. (Psalm 119:105-108)

How is your life going? You might be living by default rather than by any particular design. When you buy a new electronic device, there is a "factory preset" for how the system should work. It is called the "default" operating system. As time goes on and you become more familiar with what the device can actually do when it gets off the "default" mode, you might actually find you can do some pretty handy things with the device. "Default" is only a beginning spot - it isn't where we are designed to live. When we settle for "default", we negate the purpose of being created with the various abilities God has worked into our temperament and character. Whenever we settle for living in the "default" mode, we are simply saying we are content with following a script. From the beginning of time, God's intent has been for us to live by "design" rather than "default" - this is why he gave us the right to make choices. We have a free-will - how much we choose to use our free-will to move closer to him, or further away from him is all up to us.

Each of us is created with a "default" operating system - body, soul, and spirit. The body is animated by the spirit, the soul is what gives us the uniqueness of connection with one another. The body gives a framework - the soul is what allows us to rationalize, make choices, and respond with any range of emotions. The spirit is the place where we either embrace a closeness with God as our Lord and Savior, or we live with a void here. By default, we have this void - the place of connection. We either "fill the slot" with him, or we fill it with whatever seems to matter MORE than him. By default, we are empty in this space - by choice the space is filled. Oftentimes, the choices we make kind of "override" the intentions of our heart. We might think we will get to the place we desire in our heart, but the choices we make don't actually make it possible for us to actually see those desires met in the manner God intended for us.

God grants good sense to all of us - it is a choice to use it! People tell me they don't know what God's will is for their lives. I have to go back to the "owner's manual" to help them frame their understanding of what God's will actually is. God's will becomes clear when we understand the three parts of our "default operating system" and see how they are interrelated. When we do something which will not benefit our body, it is not going to provide a good framework for our soul or spirit any longer - so it is likely not God's will. When we want to embrace things which will fill our minds with confusion, challenge the things we know to be true, or allow idleness in our thought processes, this is definitely not going to benefit either our body or soul. If we choose to fill the place where God's Spirit desires to be "plugged in" within us with anything other than his Spirit, we will fall short of being animated as he would desire.

Learn the power of asking the right questions. You can go through life asking questions, but if they aren't the right ones, you tend to lean toward the "default" answers. When we begin to ask the right questions, such as "How will this impact my relationship with ..." or perhaps "What will this decision cost me in time which I should be directing into my relationship with Jesus", then we are going to find a different set of answers to help us live by design, not default. It is amazing to see how the right questions produce different outcomes from questions which are superficial or just don't really require any effort to answer. When my teacher asked, "How did you get to that answer?" He was asking me to form the right sequence of thought which consistently produced the right answer. Often, we "got to" the right answer, but in the next set of problems we would be given, using that same "train of thought" would not produce the same results. Why? We weren't asking the right questions to help us consistently solve the problem at hand.

Ask whether this current decision you are faced with is congruent with God's "design" for your life. If you have never asked God to reveal his "design" and have always just been content to live by "default", you might be surprised what you will learn if you actually stop long enough to consider his design. Living by default allows us to have moments of indiscretion - times when we choose to go one way, because we think we will get the same results with our choice as we got the last time. When we are not clear as to what God's plan is for our lives, we tend to make a lot of attempts at "solving the issues" in our lives, but never quite doing it with any consistency. We end up living by "trial and error". Trial and error are two "defaults" I am trying to avoid! We have been given the "owner's manual" (the Bible) to help guide our choices. As long as we follow the principles displayed there, solutions are much more consistent! We don't need to understand how the whole "system" works to understand there is an opportunity to live a "customized" life. "Customized" doesn't mean we do the choosing and hope for the best. In fact, the best customization comes when we have a skilled craftsman actually helping us to understand the best use of what it is we have at our disposal. Just sayin!

Regrets anyone?

God, the one and only— I’ll wait as long as he says. Everything I need comes from him, so why not? He’s solid rock under my feet, breathing room for my soul, An impregnable castle: I’m set for life. (Psalm 62:1-2)

I saw a quote by "Missional Women" that read: "It is better to wait on God than to have regrets." It hit me that we all deal with regrets and if this 'waiting on God' part of our lives were just a bit better, we might not have quite so many. As King David proposed, if we wait as long as God says, the outcome may just be a little more certain. Why? The ground we stand upon is solid - the place where we take refuge while we wait gives us the needed time to breathe in and breathe out. We are to go to God, waiting upon him as long as HE says, not trudging ahead because WE say it is time to move.

I speak for myself here - waiting is tough business. My mind gets me in muddle and the muddle just gets worse as I imagine all "I" could be doing if "I" just moved ahead. Did you catch all those "I's" in that sentence? Most of the trouble I find myself in is my own doing because I didn't take time to wait AS LONG AS HE SAYS. Yes, I emphasized that for a reason because I believe we ALL need to hear that one. AS LONG - this is more than likely hard for us because of that one day with God is as a thousand years with us thing (2 Peter 3:8). His timing is not slow - our expectations are too quick.

Regrets are things we feel sorrow or remorse for - missed opportunities, actions that lead to negative outcomes, disappointment over expectations not met as we hoped. When we regret something, we are actually looking upon it with a strong emotional sense of loss. As much as there may be emotions attached to taking action, there can be even more intense emotions when realize the loss associated with taking actions too quickly. If we never stop long enough, taking time to actually sit and listen to what God says, we are likely to always be taking steps we find end in some form of the emotional upheaval we call regrets. Just sayin!

Link to Missional Women: Missional Women | Facebook

Guided or Herded?

I don't know about you, but I need to be taught to make the right choices. I might 'know better' than to do some things like putting my hands on a hot stove or getting my thumb too close to the hammer when driving a nail, but did I just 'get that' intuitively? No, I had to learn the hard way - through experience. It wasn't that mom didn't warn me the stove was hot - she did many times. It wasn't that dad didn't show me the right way to hold a nail and hammer - he did many times. I just didn't listen - I didn't learn the first time, either! I had many a 'hot moment' experience and have hit that same thumb more times than I can count! With each time I made the wrong choice, there was the opportunity for me to learn to make the right ones. In all of life wrong choices aren't 'wasted' - they are times when we can 'come back around' to the place where we learn to make the right ones the next time.

Oh! Teach us to live well! Teach us to live wisely and well! Come back, God—how long do we have to wait?—and treat your servants with kindness for a change. Surprise us with love at daybreak; then we’ll skip and dance all the day long. Make up for the bad times with some good times; we’ve seen enough evil to last a lifetime. Let your servants see what you’re best at—the ways you rule and bless your children. And let the loveliness of our Lord, our God, rest on us, confirming the work that we do. (Psalm 90:12-17)

We all need to be taught how to 'live well'. I am not just talking about eating right, getting plenty of exercise, drinking lots of water, and enjoying a good night's sleep each night. I am talking about the choices that we make day after day without even really thinking about them. These are the choices to listen when spoken to, really focusing when our minds would want to wander elsewhere, and being present in the moment. They are also the choices of giving of ourselves when prompted, being open to changing what isn't working right, and putting others above ourselves even when it isn't easy to do so. Living 'well' isn't easy and it isn't learned once and then we 'have it all down'. It is a series of choices, day after day, in the right direction. Choices that sometimes aren't 'intuitive'.

It comes as no surprise to me that our psalmist is asking God to make up for the bad times with some good times. If you are anything like me, you have made bad choices and that didn't end well for you. At some point you ask God to 'redeem' whatever he can from those bad choice moments. Do you know what one of the things he 'redeems' from those moments might be? The learning we embrace from the choice we made. Sometimes God's 'making up for the bad times' is really us taking away whatever it is we can from those moments so we don't repeat them willingly again. Notice I said 'willingly' - we have to be willing to learn from the bad choices. There are always going to be times when we don't give thought to choices - we just make them. It is part of who we are, but we don't have to actively pursue them.

God is best at guiding us through life - he isn't best at 'driving us' through life like a herd of cattle. What do sheep do? They follow. What do cattle do? They need to be driven. The shepherd can use his voice to guide the sheep - the cattle need someone to ride roughshod over them. I don't know about you, but I have been on both sides of that camp - listening intently at times, then needing a good bit of 'herding' to bring me back in at others. God uses the 'burnt fingers' and 'bruised thumb' moments to teach us how to listen carefully to instruction when it is given. When we hear his voice, we will stop, consider, and then obey. Nothing is more liberating than to learn to be 'guided' instead of always needing to be 'herded' through life! Just sayin!

Zero to sixty in thirty seconds or less

Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. (James 1:19 NLT)

Do you know anybody who can go from "chill" to "overkill" in somewhere under 30 seconds? Uh oh...did I just hear someone say, "Yep, that's me"? You aren't alone, my friend - there are lots and lots of us, sometimes more than we want to admit, that can lose our cool quicker than ice melts on an Arizona sidewalk in summer! Most of the time, the challenge isn't in not reacting - it is in choosing what it is we will react to.

Three concepts are outlined in our passage here, but before we explore these, let's look at something that gets overlooked - the introduction to these words. James has just spent some time speaking about how God blesses those who endure testing and temptation with something called patience. He adds to that thought the reminder it is "when" we are tempted, not "if" we ever get tempted.

This gives me a pretty significant hint that I (and this also means you) am not above temptations to do or say the wrong things. They don't come from God, but from within - because we ALL have a sin nature that gives us just a little bit of a "tangle" now and again that we must work through or get snagged up royally. As James develops this idea of choosing the right actions and not always listening to the selfish desires of our heart, he reminds us that anger is not to have a place in our relationships - because it will destroy the unity we share.

The truth of the matter is that you help me get beyond certain temptations and I help you. We need each other - so when we allow words to get in the way, destroying relationship and driving a wedge between us, we find that our ability to withstand temptation is "altered". We needed the other person, regardless of what we may think about our ability to "overcome" these temptations. We are designed to relate - to stand together - not be lone wolves.

Anger usually emerges when we think we know better than someone else, making it less likely that we will actually listen to what it is they are saying or advising. There are times when advice comes my way and I choose not to embrace it - usually ending up with me wearing egg on my face somewhere down the line! Anger also has a way of manifesting itself within relationship when we are too quick to respond - thinking we knew where the other person was going with an idea or had in mind.

The temptation to follow some desire that may not be the best one for us to follow is there everyday. It is quite possible we are being warned by either the actions or words of another to work hard to avoid those pathways that lead us into deeper and more lasting problems. It is also quite possible we are less than willing to admit we need help and more willing to do things our own way! Let me just say this - if you want to always get what you have always got, then keep doing things the way you have always done them! If not, you may just want to become a little slower to answer, quicker to listen, and less eager to react than you have been in the past! Just sayin!

Hey, you listening, God?

I love the Eternal; for not only does He hear my voice, my pleas for mercy, But He leaned down when I was in trouble and brought His ear close to me. So as long as I have breath, I will call on Him. (Psalm 116:1-2 VOICE)

I just love the word pictures painted in scripture because they are so rich in meaning.  When I am sitting right next to my grandson, he may not talk very loudly because of the proximity we hold to each other, but one thing I do is lean in closer. Why?  I don't want to miss a word and I want to make that connection be very real for him.  Somehow when I lean in closer, the space between us narrows and the "clarity" of what is being said is very apparent. It also gives me a chance to see what he usually has in hands at the moment!  It may be a video game, or a creation crafted from those colorful building blocks, or even a picture he has drawn which tells some story he wants me to know.  It doesn't really matter what is in his hands, I discover it differently when I do more than gaze at it across the room.  In the nearness of us coming together there is an exchange which occurs that somehow is lost if he just called out across the room, "Hey, Grandma!  Look at this!"  Connection isn't just "made", it is "felt" and in turn, it is "appreciated" or "valued".

Imagine you are the small child in the picture - you have something in your hands - and you want to show what it is to the one you hope will appreciate it the most. What do you do next?  Don't you get up close and personal with him?  Our psalmist gives us a vibrant word picture of drawing near to God.  It isn't so much us getting near enough to him that we hear his voice as much as him getting right up close and personal with us, so we know and sense that he hears ours!  In turn, we are also near enough to hear him, but the picture painted for us today is that of us needing to share something with him and him leaning in so close that not a single nuance of what we share is missed. I think we often confuse the picture a little - believing we somehow scoot our way to him - forgetting even the work of "getting close" is possible only because he leans in, drawing near to us.

God can hear us regardless of how softly we speak, or where our words are spoken.  As a matter of fact, he is the only one who actually knows and hears the silence of our heart!  He cares so much about us, though, that he makes this connection even more apparent to us by "leaning down" - coming into our "space" so we sense him, know he is listening, and understand his care over our lives.  In many religions, God is aloof - he isn't near enough to really know he is listening.  Prayers are lifted hour after hour, but do they sense the nearness of the one to whom they are lifted? It is indeed an unfortunate thing to believe we work our way into his presence, somehow "gaining" his ear, and turning his head enough to get his focus for an iota of time.  If the truth be understood, God works his way to us, helping us know we already have his ear, and see with an assurance that his focus is continually toward us!

At times, my BFF will be talking away from her office right next to mine, only to realize I am not answering.  What she does next is very telling.  She gets up and comes around the corner to see why I haven't answered.  What she discovers is that I am not there!  I have slipped out to get water, take a bio-break, or the like.  In just a short period of time, I return, but at that moment when she wanted to share whatever it was she had on her mind I wasn't there.  She usually tells me, "I was talking away, but you weren't there!"  I think we sometimes believe this way about God.  We kind of think he is in "ear-shot", and we are almost afraid we might discover we have been talking into the air, without anyone really listening to us!  Truth:  God isn't ever out of "ear-shot" and when we need him the most, he is leaning in even closer so that we sense his presence with us.  Don't ever think you have to work your way to him - in order to be heard by him or to reveal what is in your hand at the moment.  He is right there already and as we begin to share, he is leaning in because he doesn't want to miss one thing we are about to share - not one thing!  Just sayin!

Do you hear me now?

Praise the Eternal!  Write new songs; sing them to Him with all your might!  Gather with His faithful followers in joyful praise; let all of Israel celebrate their Maker, their God, their friend; let the children of Zion find great joy in their true King.  So let the music begin; praise His name—dance and sing to the rhythm of the tambourine, and to the tune of the harp.  For the Eternal is listening, and nothing pleases Him more than His people; He raises up the poor and endows them with His salvation. (Psalm 149:1-4 VOICE)

A new song - isn't it kind of exciting to hear that new release from your favorite artist? When they first put out that new recording, it may be heard a million times or more in one day nowadays.  In the good ole days of yesteryear, they'd have to crank out those vinyl disks, lay out a track on an 8-track or cassette tape, and then eventually we saw the evolution of the compact disk - all of which took time to produce, package, and ship to your nearest store. Now all we have to do is tune into one of our favorite apps online and we can hear it the moment it is released - even purchase it for a nominal cost!  

You know what?  God's way of receiving "new releases" from our very hearts and souls has always been instantaneous!  He has always had a direct line to the one singing the new song! What makes God listen isn't that we all have such melodious, perfectly pitched voices. Heaven only knows there are a couple ringers in there each time I belt out a tune to him! He listens with intentional delight because it is us lifting our voices to celebrate our love, admiration, and ultimately our connection with him!  

Praise is a time of celebrating God - not just what he has done for us, but what he is to us. Grace brings us right up to the ear of God and there it is that we sing our "new songs" of praise and celebration. We have his ear because of grace!  Then grace begins to work in our hearts and we have his ear because of the heart change which is occurring.  In short order, things within our minds begin to become ordered and we see truth in a way we never have before, leading us to erupt in thanksgiving and honest celebration - again catching his ear. In the long run, we celebrate God because he is God - the creator of all things, the one who sustains the universe by his very voice, and the one who finds great pleasure in relating to us through grace.

I think the most important part of this passage is found in the last verse - "For the eternal is listening..."  It may seem a little impossible to many of us that the God of the universe would actually take time to stop, listen, and focus his attention toward us.  Maybe this is because we don't feel worthy of his attention, much less his listening to what it is we have to say to him.  You know what?  God isn't impressed with our perfect pitch - he is excited we stopped to share our day with him!  He isn't overjoyed that we expressed thankfulness for the blessing we just received - he is drawn into the words which express a heart making connection with his.

For some of us, it is like waiting for a "new release" when it comes to how frequently we stop and really take time to just lift our voice to God.  He waits and waits - then finally one day we just step up to his ear and let it go.  Time passes again and then we come to another pivotal point in our lives and let it go again.  This isn't the way God wants it to be, though.  He wants us to have his ear ALL the time - to trust him with the nutty stuff we think, and even the kind of fearful stuff we imagine.  He wants us to celebrate with him, but also celebrate because of him.  He isn't interested in us getting it perfect - his ear is open to our words, cries, celebrations, revelry, and even our unspoken groans of the heart and soul. 

Might it just be we need to "let loose" a little with God today?  I think he has his ear turned to you right now!  Just let go - he is listening.  Just sayin!

Can you hear me now?

Have you ever been awakened out of a deep sleep, believing you hear someone calling your name?  Since I have an elderly parent living in my home, I usually spring right out of bed and make my way to her room, imagining she has fallen or is crying out for some other reason to get my help.  It happens every now and again, and honestly, I cannot say that it wasn't a real voice, because it sounds just as though you and I were speaking face-to-face, but louder!  I will go into her room to find her totally asleep and snoring lightly in the depth of her slumber.  So, who was it I heard?  Was it just my imagination?  Or was there some other source for the voice?  Whenever this happens, I sit on the edge of the bed for a while trying to listen to God, hoping to find a reason why I was awakened that way.  In time, it usually leads me to pray for those closest to me, often because I feel I was awakened for a reason - although I don't specifically know the reason all the time.  Lest you think I am some "super-spiritual" woman, all "in touch with God" at all hours of the night - let me assure you otherwise.  I don't spend hours in intercessory prayer, nor do I find myself hearing these voices pulling me out of my slumber all that often.  But...when I do - I listen!  There is something about being that "awake" and "aware" that just demands you pay attention!

You all came and stood at the foot of the mountain. It blazed with fire all the way up into the sky while dark clouds and mist obscured your view. Then the Eternal spoke to you from inside that fire. You heard His voice, you heard His words, but you didn’t see His shape—you only heard a voice. (Deuteronomy 4:11-12 VOICE)

Israel had a rare opportunity to hear the voice of God - indirectly, I know, but they heard it clearly from the Mount Sinai.  Moses actually communed with God - so close to the presence of God's face that his own face shown with the majesty of the glory of God when he came down from the Mount.  I can only imagine what that would be like - to hear the voice of God as clearly as you hear the voice of the one next to you in conversation.  The truth is, when we are in the right place, we hear God's voice in many ways - but we probably don't recognize it because of the "mist and dark clouds" which prevent us from full recognition some of the time.  It doesn't take us going to the Mount Sinai to hear God's voice clearly.  It doesn't take us going inside a church, or even to the foot of the nativity scenes erected around cities this holiday season.  What it does take is a heart, mind, and spirit willing to get quiet long enough to actually enter into his presence and then just sit there listening.

Listening is probably one of the hardest things for most of us to learn in life - because we somehow equate listening with "inactivity".  We think if we are just still, we will hear.  There is nothing further from the truth, for listening is an active process and it requires us to be in the right frame of mind, with the attitude of heart which is actually open to receive, and the spiritual hunger that drives us into the presence of the one we seek to hear.  Although I don't listen to Larry King, one of the things he frequently tells others about himself is that he knows if he is to learn anything new in his day, he has to listen.  His words ring true - we don't learn by our talking, but by our listening.  Most of the "gurus" of communication will remind us of the tactics we must take in becoming a "good listener".  They are true, but are they the only tactics we must master?  I don't think so - for maintaining eye contact is usually number one on their list and guess what - I haven't seen God's face yet!  I have seen evidence of his presence, felt his presence, and seen the beauty of his love in the face of others, but I haven't seen HIM face-to-face!

Ernest Hemingway once said most people DON'T listen.  It is a sad state of affairs, but a true one nonetheless.  One of the most important parts of listening that I have learned is not so much the eye contact (although it is important), but the idea of "being present in the moment".  In other words, I shut out the distractions, stop what I was doing and just pay attention.  This probably matters more than any other "tactic" or "technique" we can "master" when it comes to listening.  It also probably demands the most effort on our part, for we can all be those kind of listeners who are too preoccupied with some other thing that we are not truly "present" in the moment.  God doesn't demand our highest "skills" when it comes to listening, he just looks for the alignment of our mind, heart, and spirit - with the yielding of our will to just be still long enough to listen to what he says.

He speaks through his Word - spending time taking in scripture is better when we are actually "present in the moment" while we are doing so!  He speaks through others who know him well - actually engaging with them through active listening is one means to learn how he speaks and to receive his words.  He speaks through nature - for even the trees, birds, and brooks speak of his majesty and great care.  Stop long enough, focus your attention, and just wait - he speaks.  You just have to be in the right "frame" to hear!  Just sayin!

I really do want to listen...

Come - to approach or move toward; to arrive my movement or a set course of purpose.  Let - to cause or make something occur. Us - you and me.  Bow - incline ourselves so as to be in the position of reverence; to yield ourselves to another. Worship - honor and adore. Him - none other should be our focus.  Kneel - take a knee in submission; to no longer be in a position to run.  Before - awaiting what only comes when we are both yielded and no longer running. The Lord - the creator of all things.  Quite a beginning to our study today, isn't it?  We are to approach, not with pride, but in humility. Not with the list of good deeds we have managed to accomplish, but with the trust that our lack of goodness will be met with the fullness of his grace.  There is no longer any running - but yielded spirit, open heart, and focused attention.  This is how we approach the throne of God.

Come, let us bow down and worship him! Let us kneel before the Lord who made us. He is our God, and we are the people he cares for, his sheep that walk by his side. Listen to his voice today... (Psalm 95:6-7 ERV)

He is our God and we are the people he cares for.  We often gloss right over the words of this passage as though they were just nice "poetry" or "kind words".  Herein is our misfortune in doing so - we miss what God wants us to really get into our hearts and minds about who we are in his eyes.  As we approach his throne, it isn't in our own effort, but in the beauty of his grace.  What is more remarkable is this idea of humbling oneself to become even more blessed by his hand!  As we approach with yielded and expectant heart, we are met with outpourings of his care and "carefulness" over our lives.  He is the giver of both the correction which makes our path certain and straight, and the grace and love to walk therein!

The sheep needed both the correction of the shepherd and the tender, watchful eye of his care.  Their very "salvation" depended on that! Without the shepherd's care, they'd be stolen away in the night, never to return.  Without his care, they would be driven further and further away from the lush valleys where they could graze and find their fill.  I daresay, without God's care we'd be in quite a mess in our lives!  Something we cannot miss is the description of where the sheep dwell - they don't lie down and just cuddle up for an eternal nap.  They walk by his side.  This suggests to me the idea of God expecting us to actually spread his grace around - not just enjoy it all by ourselves.

I think we often walk ahead of God - getting our timing all messed up because we think we have it all figured out.  Then we get a little behind him in matters where we find it a bit more of a struggle to "get on board" with what he desires to do in or through our lives.  If we can just find the "cadence" of walking alongside him, we'd be much more satisfied in our walk.  There is something of strength garnered from being side-by-side in the walk, not struggling to lead, nor lagging behind in frustration or fear. God's desire is for us to not "keep up", but be "kept" alongside. When I am at the side of someone, I can easily take hold of their hand when I sense fear, or be in a position to feel their embrace when I am feeling like I might just need a little extra "bolstering" in my forward progress.  God doesn't want us our front, boasting in our own strength, or being pushed along to get us moving in the first place.  He doesn't want us lagging behind, for he knows the enemy often attacks from the rear!

How is it we actually hear God's voice?  We need to be in a position to hear it!  I have recognized something with mom's hearing loss. When I am pushing her in the wheelchair, I can be talking loudly enough for everyone else in the store to hear me, but because I am behind her, she doesn't grasp the clarity of what I say.  When I am in front of her, you'd think she'd hear me more, but only if I am facing her and on her level!  At her side, she hears me much better. Maybe there is a lessons there for us - it isn't as important in some things, but I think position and attitude is quiet important when it comes to listening and to being heard!  Just sayin!

Listen to me!

Winston Churchill was once quoted as saying, "Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."  If you haven't noticed this yet, we listen better when we sit down.  It may be that it lightens the load of having to stand there to listen, or just that it changes our point of reference to each other, but there is something which changes when we sit down and really begin to get on the same level as the one we are attempting to listen to.  Covey likens "really listening" to something akin to the oxygen we breathe, but equates it to some type of "emotional oxygen" which revives us deep into the very depths of our emotions.  If you stop to think about it, he is pretty spot on in this observation - people need to be heard and listening to them really does "infuse" them with a new sense of emotional energy.  As Churchill observed, that simple courage to "get down to each other's level" is something which we must evidently have to work on, for courage isn't always something which comes easily to us.  Listening means we may face difficulties we didn't want to face, or may "feel" ill-prepared to address.  It also means we will act in accordance to our beliefs - if we say we love Christ, then we must show we love one another - and we cannot possibly do this if we are too weak, or too proud to listen to one another!

People get good things for the words they say, and they are rewarded for the work they do. Fools always think their own way is best, but wise people listen to what others tell them. (Proverbs 12:14-15 ERV)

I think we have a hard time with this thing called "listening" because we think it requires us to offer advice, come up with the answers, or just be ready to infuse something "wise" into the equation.  I guess this is kind of true - we are often found giving advice, or presenting some tidbit of wisdom into the matter, but if we listen without feeling this is required, we might just listen a little better. When my daughter needs to unload about a difficult day with the boys, I listen and recount the various "shout at the top of their lungs" days I endured while she and her brother were growing up.  I don't offer advice, I just listen.  Now, if she asks if I have any ideas on what she can do to help them play better together, that is a different matter.  I can almost always tell when she is struggling to keep things together - almost at the point of wanting to just about disengage from this hard work of "mothering" two young boys.  She works from home, making it even harder when the pressures of playing "referee" all day long mount.  In those moments when she and I talk on my ride home, we don't have to have all the answers - we just need to listen to the hurt, frustration, fear, and downright tension which is there in the moment.  Somehow, in unburdening to me, and I to her about my day, we get through it.  It isn't a whole lot of "wisdom" sharing, or great counseling advice which gets us through, it is just knowing someone listened and cared enough about what we were going through to just hear you out.

If you have struggles with this listening thing, you are not alone.  Whether it is our listening to God when he speaks, or just plain getting down to the level of another who just needs someone to unburden their hearts to, it is hard stuff. I want us to recognize some of the things which make it a little easier for us to listen:

- Getting on the same level as the one we are speaking with is important because it brings us into "even ground".  This may not seem possible when the one we are listening to is God or unburdening one's heart to him, but trust me, he came to our level because he cares that much about us to make that very "living connection" with us!  So, we would be foolish to think he doesn't get on the same level as us when we need to unburden to him!  He doesn't expect us to "get up to his level" in order to unburden our hearts - but comes to ours and gets right next to us so he can hear all we have to say.  It isn't that he doesn't know what is going on in our lives - because he does.  It is that he knows how important it is to hear things from our perspective.  In so doing, he often helps us see things from his, not by preaching to us, but by listening to us unload where we are, what we are experiencing, etc.  If you haven't noticed, when we begin to truly unload our burden, we somehow see what the real issues are which have been hidden under that heavy load!  He is just helping us get rid of the load so we can see the way out!

- Emotional renewal comes when we are able to just talk things out.  As I indicated, there may not be much required of us to truly listen, but it is harder than we might think.  It isn't that we zone out and just sit there like a zombie, because we don't connect if we do.  In listening, it is actually more important for us to recharge one another's emotional energies than anything else.  We need to support each other through engaged, active listening.  Whenever we are more focused on giving the answer we think someone might want, or "thinking ahead" to what might be the possible solution to the person's issue, we are disengaging from active listening.  We have a unique opportunity to actually appreciate the facial expressions, tone of voice, and even the body language of the one we are listening to when we are both at their same level and putting the "wise answer" out of our mind until we have heard where their heart is in the matter.  We want to jump ahead to the solution - they just need us to allow them to unpack enough of the load they are carrying to actually begin to see they probably were already well aware of the answer in the first place!  This listening without judging or jumping ahead is hard work, but well worth the emotional "recharge" it gives to both of us.  

The next time someone just needs a listening ear, be courageous enough to both get down to their level and begin to connect to them in a way which will give them the emotional "recharge" they so desperately need.  In so doing, you will reveal greater wisdom than most of your well-thought-out words of wisdom could have!  Just sayin!

Good sense dictates it!

Have you ever been accused of being a little too "chatty" - always talking away, not really intent on any particular subject, just talking non-stop?  I have one child who is quiet, content to sit for long periods without so much as a word, while another is just the opposite. This isn't unusual, as most of us have differences in how it is we "interact" with others.  In fact, if you consider your immediate family, you will find there are those who are reserved, others outgoing.  It is kind of a dangerous position to find oneself in, though, when we are a little "too chatty".  Why?  There are times when we don't always consider the words we use - because we aren't quiet long enough to consider the way we say them, the content we use in saying them, and how it is another may receive them.  The "chatty" run into problems because they are too chatty - the "quiet" run into their share of problems because no one really knows what they are thinking or what their true feelings are about a situation.  The use of "good sense" in communicating with one another is important - because it keeps us from running over the feelings of another, and it also brings us to a place of consideration of the uniqueness of each individual.  I have said it before, but it bears saying again:  Words matter just as much as the ones which remain unspoken!

If you have good sense, you will listen and obey; if all you do is talk, you will destroy yourself. You will be safe, if you always do right, but you will get caught, if you are dishonest. Deceit causes trouble, and foolish talk will bring you to ruin. The words of good people are a source of life, but evil hides behind the words of the wicked.  (Proverbs 10:8-11 CEV)

The dangerous part about being "too chatty" is our tendency to even "talk over" God when he is trying to speak to us!  If we cannot get quiet long enough to hear from him, we stand the chance of charging ahead full-speed into things God doesn't desire for us.  We get into the middle of muddles and find ourselves struggling with things we shouldn't have had to struggle with in the first place.  The warning is quite clear:  If all you do is talk, you will destroy yourself.  Talk not only impedes listening - it is "cheap".  It doesn't cost us anything until someone "calls us" on what it is we have said.  I have found myself in many a "prove it to me" situation simply because I said something without thinking and then have to prove I meant it!  Awkward!  We need a balance between what we say and how well we are listening to what else is being said, or not said, around us.

If we have good sense, we will listen and obey.  This gives us a hint into a truth we might just want to consider - obedience isn't found in our activity, but in our attentiveness!  We often find ourselves in places of compromise because we were too busy with something else to actually pay attention to what we were doing.  We often think victory over sin in our lives is in doing the right things - "doing" is best when it is preceded by "listening"!  Listening doesn't happen by accident - it is purposeful and it takes a lot of focus.  Focus is intentional and it is also "directional".  You much choose your focus carefully - otherwise you find yourself listening to the wrong stuff!  Even worse, the one you may be listening to could just be yourself!  If you haven't figured it out by now - your "self" is kind if fickle!

Ernest Hemingway once said, "When people talks, listen completely."  There is something to this idea of "listening completely".  "Complete" suggests being undivided in your attention. If you have a tendency to divide your attention once in a while, you know how easily you can actually miss "content" in a discussion!  You come "back into the conversation" with a little bit of this and that, but you will have missed a good deal of the "context" of the conversation. If you have ever been caught "distracted" in conversation, you know how embarrassing that can be!  You actually look a little dumbfounded when you are expected to give an answer! Others might call this "having egg on one's face".  Either way, not where we want to find ourselves - especially when it is God who has been speaking and we have only been half-heartedly paying attention!

Proverbs is rich in advice about our ears and our tongue.  Listening and speaking go hand-in-hand.  They both get us into so much trouble - but equally as important - they both have the potential to give us the wisdom to act appropriately!  You have probably heard the expression:  God gave us two ears and one mouth, so we should listen twice as much as we speak.  This is based on something Zino of Citium, a Greek philosopher, once said.  There is much truth in this wisdom, though. It may not be biblically based, but I think God may just approve the wisdom in these words!  So, today as we set out to explore our world, let us keep in mind the wisdom of "listening" first, speaking second, and maybe we just might learn something new from each other today!  Just listening!

What view are you seeing today?

In finding the right candidate for a position, an employer considers the skills the individual requires for the performance of their duties.  These skills can be defined as both "hard" skills (the ability to type 90 words a minute) and "soft" skills (the ability to be courteous when answering the phones).  The "soft" skills are a little harder to find - often not really observed until you get the person in the specific situation where they will need to display these "soft" skills.  The skilled employer will use specifically crafted interview questions and examples to attempt to discover if the individual has those "soft" skills, but believe me, people can "tell" you they possess them, but until you see them in action, you really don't know if they do or not.  One such skill is the ability to listen before one formulates or gives an answer.  This is a "soft" skill, to be sure, but it is often coupled with some of the "hard" skills one uses in life.  As one goes about their performance of duties (whether at home or in the office), the "meshing" of these "skill sets" becomes quite obvious.  When one is lacking in the "soft" skills, relationships of any sort are made all the harder.

Pride leads to destruction; humility leads to honor. It’s stupid and embarrassing to give an answer before you listen.  (Proverbs 18:12-13 CEV)

Throughout the Book of Proverbs, we observe many "soft" skills referenced such as listening, using the right words, showing concern for another, etc.  In relation to the "hard" skills such as being a good carpenter, profitable farmer, or skilled fisherman, the "softer" skills are certainly pointed out in this collection of wisdom words.  You might observe how a man is to learn how to care for his wife, finding great contentment in the relationship he has with her.  Still another writing may include advice on how a king is manage the dealings of those within his rule.  Then we see the ways a wife is to attend to the physical, spiritual, emotional, and relational needs of the family.  From cover to cover, the Book of Proverbs points out the "softer" skills.  If a whole book is dedicated to this, maybe we'd do well to actually use it to guide us in "forming" those skills!

Today's skill is that of learning to accept the value of another.  When we are exposed to the teaching, "Pride leads to destruction; humility leads to honor", we are asked to consider how it is we "deal" with the other person by how it is we "view" ourselves in the relationship.  When we begin to consider the value of another, we take ourselves out of the "windshield" of our focus, so to speak.  We begin to see the entire "view" from the windshield, side windows, and back.  In essence, we are asked to not think so highly of our own opinion, learning, abilities, etc., that we neglect to give another the opportunity to be highlighted for theirs.  We each lend value to the relationship, but if one is constantly demanding the lion's share of the attention, the relationship becomes one-sided and very limited by that individual's "skill set".

Humility is not abasing oneself, but rather having a "fair estimate" of one's abilities - and the same "fair estimate" of the value of the abilities of another which you may or may not possess yourself.  For example, I might be able to draft an email explaining a new process with great detail.  Does it make me the best person to do it?  Not necessarily, because I may not be the one to actually "engage in" the process I am defining in the email.  I have the skill to write the email, but I lack the "direct skills" of having learned the process by making it a part of my workflow every day.  I need to interact with those who actually engage in the workflow each day to understand their perspective on the workflow - incorporating their understanding and skilled use of the workflow to help me describe the process detail.  I need the value they lend to make the discussion of the process even more valuable to those who will learn of the process from the email.

Giving an answer before you know what is being talked about is actually quite dangerous. In game shows such as Jeopardy, where one knowledgeable individual is racing against the clock to "ring in" before the other individual who wants to answer the question, some of the dangers of "ringing in" too early come in not fully hearing the entire "clue" given by the host of the show.  The game show environment is not where we each exist from day to day, though.  We don't "race to ring in" so we can be the first to answer the question. In fact, whenever we do this, we usually end up not anticipating the "rest of the clue" someone may actually be giving us!  We "guess" we know the answer, but do we really? Most of the time, it might come "close" to working out for us in relationship, but if continued long-term, this urge to "jump in" before the other person actually has a chance to finish what they are saying will actually put up road-blocks to continued conversation.

It stands to reason the "soft skills" in relationship matter - actually stepping back long enough to learn them is where we have the greatest difficulty.  Until we step back, we don't see the full picture.  We get the "windshield" view of life - what is in our immediate focus.  We don't get the full picture view - the "panorama" of sorts.  Truth is, we need the panorama in order to get the most from relationship.  So, instead of being so quick to answer the next time, maybe taking a step back to really listen could open up a new view for us in relationship!  Just sayin!

How many times do I have to be told?

Did you ever stop to consider the "skill" of listening?  If we are to really understand what listening is and is not, we must probably understand what listening "is not" first.  This will help us to "carve out" what listening really is. The idea of listening is not just "hearing" words said.  It is not being intermittently engaged in conversation.  It is not double-tasking - doing one thing while allegedly listening.  I have tried all these things - "hearing", engaging half-heartedly, and double-tasking.  What happens is that my attention is not directed as it should be, my heart isn't into it, and I just plain miss stuff!  We can either develop a "habit" of being good listeners, or the one of not listening as we should.  The latter is a bad habit!  There is probably no habit quite so difficult to break - no skill so difficult to learn.

I have a lot more to say about this, but it is hard to get it across to you since you’ve picked up this bad habit of not listening. By this time you ought to be teachers yourselves, yet here I find you need someone to sit down with you and go over the basics on God again, starting from square one—baby’s milk, when you should have been on solid food long ago! Milk is for beginners, inexperienced in God’s ways; solid food is for the mature, who have some practice in telling right from wrong.  (Hebrews 5:11-14 MSG)

The most telling part of not being in the habit of listening as we should is that we don't do as we hear.  In hearing, we just merely allow the words to bounce around in our brains for a while and then somehow they escape.  It is like we "leak"!  We don't hold onto what we hear - allowing it to affect our thought, reasoning, intellect, etc.  When we allow stuff to "leak out", we are constantly in the place of having to "relearn" the information over-and-over again.  I remember having my first locker at school.  I had literal bad dreams for a couple of weeks before school ever began because I was so afraid I'd forget the combination to the lock on my gym locker!  Once I received my locker assignment, I practiced and re-practiced opening that lock, rehearsing those series of numbers until I thought I'd have it down pat. Don't ya know...I forgot the lock combination on one of my first days at school and nearly had a panic attack!  For the life of me I could not put those numbers together and there I stood - having just minutes to change out for physical education and no idea how to access my shorts and T-Shirt from the gym locker!  I had "leaked"!

To make matters worse, I would have to admit to my gym teacher that I had forgotten the precious combination.  To make matters worse, the gym teacher had given us this big lecture about us being responsible to remember the combination and she wasn't our mothers.  So when I forgot that combination, do you think I wanted to go to her and admit my failing?  Not a chance.  I stood there in panic, holding back tears, retrying every series of numbers that seemed feasible in my mind.  As if to make matters worse, more and more of the girls in my class began to leave the locker room, making it obvious that I was not going to make the class bell!  I was mortified because they would ALL soon know how silly I had been to forget that combination.  You and I all have the same tendencies to hold onto stuff we might have done well to not allow to clutter up our brain space and then we allow stuff to slip away which we should have been guarding with our lives!  In respect to our spiritual lives, whenever we allow the teachings of God to be merely heard and not embraced, we are allowing this "leakage" of what is heard.  When we do, we have but one recourse - learn it all over again!

Yes, I did eventually have to admit to my teacher my failure to remember the combination she had given to me just a few days before.  Yes, I did remember it the rest of the year and can even recite it now at age 56!  It wasn't even a hard one!  32-15-30 - go figure!  But...in that moment of time, it was gone! Why?  I only half-heartedly set my attention toward learning what I'd heard. We all find ourselves in those positions at times, but we should not allow this to become the dominant way we treat what it is we hear.  As a matter of fact, some of us are "relearning" lessons taught long ago simply because we have this bad habit of not listening.  Relearning the basics is not the original plan - it is the contingency!  The plan was for us to hear, embrace, and obey.  The lack of attention we paid toward the teaching in the first place actually resulted in us having to "relearn" the lesson sometimes multiple times! Instead of being able to eat meat, we are still having to eat soft foods!

Square one - the place we all begin.  Square two - the next step in the progression of learning.  How many times do we try to circumvent the natural progression of learning?  It is like we want to take two stairs at once, making the climb much quicker, but then we wonder why we are winded, have muscle pains the next day, and forgot what we were to learn by taking each step with intention!  When the step builder placed each of those steps in their natural upward progression, he never intended us to skip any one of them!  In fact, he built them at the perfect "rise" so we wouldn't have undo strain or stress in making the climb.  When we learn to listen, forsaking our bad habit of not listening, it is as though we are learning to take each step in progression. We often avoid some of the issues we experience with not listening when we do. Just sayin!

You hear me now?

Wisdom dictates we listen more than we speak - but I have to honestly ask how well we are doing on that one?  Listening is an art - learned not because we really want to learn it, but because if we don't learn how to listen, we will eventually get life pretty much as we like it, but we might just be the only ones left in the picture once we do!  I suspect there is much to this listening "art" which many of us have yet to perfect.  In fact, learning this "art" of listening requires we not only learn how to "tune into" the voice we hear, but we learn to "recognize" the voice.  I think many of us hear those "voices" in our heads - hopefully not too many of them - but we don't always know which one is the one we should be listening to.  If you have ever seen the commercial where there is a little guy in white on one shoulder and a little guy in black on the other and the lady is trying to figure out if she can give her kid chocolate milk or some other treat, you probably understand what I mean.  We hear "sides" to the stories in our head, and then we find we must determine which "side" we will respond to.  Were that life was so simple as to only present us with the lily white side and the ugly dark side, but alas, it is not!  In fact, there are probably "shades" of white and grey on both sides - not just the lily white and the deep, dark black.  It is the "shades" of white and grey which present us with the difficult challenge of sorting out the voices inside our head.  

Then God came and stood before him exactly as before, calling out, “Samuel! Samuel!”  Samuel answered, “Speak. I’m your servant, ready to listen.”  (I Samuel 3:10 MSG)

Samuel was a young boy, probably in his early teens, or just about to enter his teens.  He has been dedicated to the work of the Lord in the Temple, doing daily tasks within the Temple right alongside the priests.  One day, he hears a voice call out to him.  Thinking it was the head priest, he hustles off to see what Eli wants.  He is surprised to find the "voice" was not Eli's, but did you ever stop to consider why even the head priest didn't recognize the voice Samuel was actually hearing until the same thing occurred the third time?  The first and second time, Eli just sends him away, telling him it was not him who called.  The third time, it "dawns on" Eli that this might just be God trying to get through to Samuel - to have a personal conversation with him or give him direction for his life!  I wonder how many of us are kind of like Eli - just drifting along, getting all kinds of reminders of God desiring to speak with us, and then one day it finally dawns on us that he has been the one speaking all along - we just didn't recognize the voice!

Samuel, on the other hand, knew he was hearing something - yet he didn't have clarity about what it was he was hearing.  This was explained to us in the account as being the case since God had not yet revealed himself to Samuel.  In the Old Testament times, the revelation of God's voice came to very few - those anointed to be his spokesperson were often the ones to receive the revelation.  Now the voice of God is really something we can ALL hear - since Jesus opened the way for ALL of us to hear God's voice plainly and on an ongoing basis.  The purpose of God's voice is to bring revelation - to disclose or uncover something not previously known.  It might come in the form of direction, or perhaps as words of encouragement.  There are times when God speaks directly to us to keep us safe - as when he gives us a quick warning which alerts us to pay attention to the traffic when we are drifting a little into daydreaming.  It that split second of moving from daydreaming into attentive awareness, we narrowly avoid the collision which could have cost us dearly.  Other times, he speaks to build us up or to encourage us to move ahead despite what we see on the outside - as he does when it seems we aren't getting through to our kids, but he knows we are touching something deep within which will carry them through life many years down the road.

I am encouraged as I read this account of Samuel trying to respond to the voice he hears.  Why?  I guess it is because I see a little of each of us in him. Simple folks, trying to fulfill our everyday tasks, ready to learn what we can as we move through this life - yet sometimes just a little confused as to what we are to do with what it is we are hearing.  There are probably many times we hear God's voice, but because we aren't sure of the source, we go to what is familiar to us - as Samuel did when going to Eli.  His was the voice he was most familiar with - to go to Eli was a natural response.  Some of us get the impression someone is speaking to us - but we don't know it is God himself pulling us toward himself in order to reveal himself in or through us.  So, we go where we are most familiar - friends, family, small group members, etc. Not an unrealistic response, when you really think about it.  We use them as the sounding boards - bouncing what it is we are "hearing" in our heads until we get to a place of clarity.

I don't necessarily think this is wrong, but sometimes God just wants us to respond directly to him - to answer him with, "Speak, Lord.  I am ready to listen."  The idea of speaking directly "with" God is frightening to some, but it is the plan God has for each of us.  Notice I did not say it was us speaking directly "to" God, but "with" God.  Sometimes we initiate the conversation - at others God does.  Either way, it is a conversation.  If one party speaks and the other just listens - it is a lecture!  If both engage, it is conversation - sometimes filled with good cheer and warm feelings, other times with hurt, sorrow, and the words which express how deeply we need each other.  God desires direct and frequent conversation with us and I am grateful he doesn't stop with the first call!  Some of us take a little longer to figure out it is his voice calling us - others will get it on the first try.  The good news is that God calls!

At first, God may initiate the conversation a little more than we do - until we become more comfortable with this idea of listening to his voice and hearing his revelation.  Then, little by little, we grow "comfortable" with picking up the conversation right where we left off, anytime and anywhere.  I have a good friend who comments often about a relationship she formed when she was younger.  She sees this friend only on occasion now, but as she describes it, they always just pick up where they left off, like no time had passed at all. God wants this closeness with us - entering into relationship with him isn't for the lazy or half-hearted.  In fact, if we look at Samuel again, we see he arose from sleep to respond - not once, but three times!  I don't know about you, but when I finally get asleep - something escaping me in a little as I age - I really like it when I can stay asleep until my rest has been reached.  When I awaken in the night, one of the first thoughts I have is to turn my attention to listening.  Sometimes I only hear the faint snoring of my mother in the next room, giving me assurance all is well in her direction, but at others, I hear words of a psalm beginning to fill my heart, or the needs of a dear friend beginning to bring me to the place of prayer.  Either way, it is in listening that we discover the moment of revelation.  

Maybe God has been calling to you a little more frequently these days and you may not have been as "aware" of the voice you were hearing.  Next time you hear it, try doing as Samuel and saying, "Speak God.  I am listening."  You might just be surprised what conversation might just ensue.  Just sayin!

Come on, breathe!

Many of us have a tendency to listen, but be less than attentive to what we are hearing - something which quite honestly results in a little less than "perfect obedience" when it comes to us listening to God.  It should not surprise us God puts these concepts of "listening" with "obedience" and "learning" with "living".  What we hear, we are to respond to in a prompt manner.  What we come to know, we are to live out.  It is repeated over and over in scripture.  In fact, James warns against being a "hearer" and not a "doer" of the Word - Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don’t act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like. (James 1:22-23 MSG)  This "in one ear, out the other" thing runs deeper than most of us would like to admit.  If we were all to stop long enough to really consider this, we might just realize we are "filtering out" a whole lot of stuff we should have been holding onto or paying attention to a little closer.  We do it unconsciously most of the time - not with purposeful intent.  We don't "shut off" our listening, we just drift into not paying close attention.

Attention, Israel. Listen obediently to the rules and regulations I am delivering to your listening ears today.  Learn them.  Live them.  (Exodus 5:1 MSG)

Let's look at these concepts of LISTENING and OBEDIENCE - LEARNING and LIVING:

- Listening is the first step in learning anything new.  To stay on the "cutting edge", companies everywhere hold "focus groups" aimed at discovering what their potential customers have to think about their current product, or perhaps some new line they would like to introduce.  Their sole intent is to "hear" from the customer - to get their impressions so they can learn from them. Wisdom tells us we actually begin to move from merely "hearing" to "listening" when we begin to "incorporate" what we are hearing into our practice.  The company holding a focus group would take the ideas shared and either determine to "scrap" their idea or put it forward as planned.  They use what they hear to determine future action.  In a practical sense, this is what God asks of us - hear what he is saying by "incorporating" it into our actions.  In this way, we move from just "hearing" his Word, and we begin to be "doers" of his Word.

- Obedience is an outcome of listening - we take action by "incorporating" the things asked or taught.  Going back to our illustration of the focus group, if the company simply paid all this money to hold the focus group, then never really did anything with what they learned, of what value was the information? None, right?  If we are going to take the time to hold the focus group, then we need to take the interest in using the information they provide to assist us with the direction our company should take in the future.  God doesn't hold focus groups to get common consensus of how we are feeling about things, but you get my point.  He invests an awful lot in our lives - not because he has to, but because he wants to.  In turn, he asks us to take a little time to focus our attention on him, his teachings, and then to incorporate them into our present and future actions.

Living is a process of putting into practice or use that which you have at your disposal.  Yesterday, my Kindle froze - oh my!  As I told this story to my dear friend, she laughed hilariously at my humor in this moment, so I thought I'd share it with you.  I love to play word games on it and read as I have time, but as I was counting on about a half hour of word challenges, my screen froze - no sign of life could be seen.  No response to hard reboots - just plain screen.  After about twenty attempts to revive it, I placed it aside on the charger and prayed I'd have some revelation of what to do in the morning.  In the morning, I brought it to the computer, thinking maybe it just needed a software upgrade and I could "hard-wire" it to the computer.  I logged into the website and began to "diagnose" my "patient".  After all, my Kindle had "flat-lined" and maybe if I could "jump-start" its heart again, it would return to life! I followed the instructions with tender-loving care, hoping for any sign of life. Even a little flutter would have bolstered my faith, but alas, nothing.

I sat the thing down, ready to pronounce it "dead" - no signs of life.  I turned away for just a second, believing I would need to go online to purchase the next generation of reader, then turned back to see a little glimmer of hope! The Kindle screen was beginning to flash to life - and the little grey bar which showed it was "rebooting" told me it was trying to breathe again!  I sat there cheering it on with words like, "Breathe, you can do it!"  As I began to see the signs of life, my heart began to soar again!  My Kindle was coming back to life!  Woohoo!  Now, lest you think there is nothing to learn from this little incident, let me tell you, even a dead Kindle can give this writer lessons for life!  You see, God gets each of us in a place of "no signs of life" - there just isn't much happening which gives much hope we will ever "breathe again".  In "reconnecting" with us, we begin to "flutter" to life once again.  He connects to us through his Word - breathing life into a once pretty lifeless existence. If we refuse his "breath", we refuse that which will restore us to "full capacity". I can hear God sometimes just saying, "Breathe, come on, breathe!"  He has given me his Word, helped me to hear it with my ears, then he stands tenderly by, waiting for signs of life!  

When God brings his truth, we have the ability to allow the "connection" - opening the door for us to incorporate what that connection will provide - signs of new life!  We learn and live only to the degree we listen and obey - just sayin!