When I was younger, I remember distinctly being able to hear the birds chirping in the morning and throughout the day. I paid attention to them. It was easy. As I child, I spent lots of time outside playing. I was carefree. I didn’t have many worries or responsibilities then. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve noticed that I don’t hear the birds as distinctly as I used to. I see them all the time, but I don’t hear them. As a matter of fact, for the longest, I haven’t paid much attention to them at all, unless they poop on my car.
I realized that just because I don’t hear the birds, doesn’t mean they aren’t chirping. On Saturday mornings, I wake up but lay in the bed for a while. My home is surrounded by trees and when the house is still and quiet, I hear the birds loud and clear. And after I hear them, I pay attention to them. I can hear the different ranges of serenades from the outside.
Of course this had me thinking. When life speaks to us, what distractions in life have made it difficult to hear? Life around us and in us is communicating with us constantly. But what are we actually listening to? What are we sitting still long enough to actually hear? Are we too busy and distracted to hear what we need to hear because we’re too consumed with life?
It’s interesting. Once the house wakes up, the sounds of the birds seem to become more distant and faint. It’s not the birds that shift that makes them become distant. It’s my attention that shifts. The birds are still there. They’re still singing and chirping. But I’ve stopped paying attention to them.
Sometimes in life, we become so cavalier with those consistently around us, it’s easy for their voices to get lost in the crowd of life’s distractions. We hear them talking but we’re not listening. Why? Perhaps familiarity breeds contentment. We’ve become so used to the voices that we’ve stop paying attention to what’s being said. Unfortunately, too often, desiring to hear that voice won’t become a priority until that voice is no longer around to speak.
What about God’s voice? He speaks all the time. But do we hear His voice? Or has His voice been lost in the daily chaos of our lives. Has the voice of God become so familiar to us that we can no longer distinctly hear Him? Are we able to decipher His voice from another’s? Are we even paying Him any attention? Are we sitting still long enough to hear what He wants to say to us?
My sheep hear My voice. – John 10:27
But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. – Luke 5:16
…Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.
– Luke 6:12
*Tressa Jo
BeyondSeeLevel 