Noise

As I sit down to write this, my neighbor is having a new roof put on his house. Of course, with that comes a constant hammering, mixed with air compressor noise and intermittent banging as things hit the ground. Noise, noise and more noise. Thankfully, the job will only take a few days and it'll all stop.

Not so, when it comes to life. The noises never stop. The voices are everywhere and they never truly shut-up. Ok, before you get worried, I'm not talking about hearing the kinds of voices that require a lengthy stay in a psychiatric ward. But, there are millions of voices out there screaming at us and if we are not careful, we'll follow all the wrong ones. You've heard them millions of times. "Buy this car," "You need these clothes," "Just do it," "You deserve it, "If it was me, I'll tell you what I'd do." Or, how about, "You were born that way," "It's only a little lie," "Everybody's doing it," "Whatever feels good, do it." Then there's voices that say things like, "You aren't good enough," "You don't measure up," "You'll never amount to anything." Then there's ones like this, "I need you to do this," "Can you buy me that," "Can you get me that," "Can you fix this,""I need your help."

Several years ago, I worked at a commercial radio station. One of my responsibilities was to produce radio commercials which sometimes required me to write the copy. It was actually one of my favorite things I got to do in radio. In writing commercials, you can simply give lots of info and facts and be done in just a couple of minutes. But the great commercials take some time to write the verbiage. They are the ones that hook you. The ones that leave you saying to yourself, "I want that! I need that! I can't live without it! And, therein is the goal of commercials. Then again, therein is the goal of all those voices. They want to control and dictate how we do life. They want us to listen to them, believe them, and act accordingly. Trouble is, we often fall for it hook, line, and sinker.

Somewhere in the middle of all that noise, is the voice of our Heavenly Father. Trust me He's continually speaking to us. His voice is the one that we need to hear most of all. Unfortunately, the noise can be so loud that we struggle hearing His voice in the midst of it all. It is vital for us though to learn how to drown out all that noise and find that still small voice of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes in order to do that, we need to take a step back and find a quiet place where all those other voices are minimized and His becomes predominate. I think the more we do that, it becomes increasingly easier to distinguish His voice in the middle of all that other chatter. Believe it or not, there were times Jesus had to step away and get alone with just him and his father in heaven.

Of course, those quiet places can be hard to find. Especially, when you have kids running around the house, the phone constantly ringing, and people constantly pulling on you for attention. Although its difficult, it is possible and extremely necessary to each and every one of us. My wife gets up early in order to spend a few moments alone. I find that the evening works better for me. Perhaps, for you it might be a few minutes during your lunch break, or while the kids are at school, or on the drive to work. Whenever it is, turn off as many inputs as you possibly can. Turn off the TV, the radio, and the computer. And yes, its ok not to answer the phone for a few minutes. You'll be surprised how easily you'll be able to hear His voice, when you eliminate some of the noise, and really listen for His voice.

The Best Way To Learn

Have you ever made a bad decision? Of course you have. We all have. Sure, some of us have make bigger ones than others, but we are all in the same boat when it comes to making some bad ones that we later regret. Several years ago, I made a huge mistake in judgment that could have cost me dearly. I hopped on board a go-cart driven by a jr. high student.

Now, I know what you're thinking, big deal right? But, hear me out on this. At the time I was teaching at a school and one of my students got a brand new go-cart for Christmas. One day, while I was on my way home I saw him driving it in a field so I stopped to watch him for a few minutes. After he spotted me, he drove over to me and offered to take me for a spin. I was a little hesitant at first to hop on board, since I wasn't going to be at the controls. However, I eventually jumped into the passenger seat and we were off. We hadn't been at it long when this inexperienced jr. high driver did something really stupid. While the go-kart was at maximum speed, he cut the wheels as sharp as he could, throwing me out of the go-cart. Then the go-kart with the kid inside rolled over my back with my foot still caught in it. Needless to say, my body twisted and turned in a way it wasn't designed to do so. As I lay there with my face buried in the dirt, and my body aching all over, I was convinced something in my back or my neck had been seriously injured. In an effort to ease my mind, I just began moving things. First my fingers, then my toes, then my legs and arms. Everything was fine, just a lot of bumps, bruises, and pain.

I had survived. And because of the experience I was a bit wiser. Yep, to this day I have never again jumped into a go-kart with anyone at the helm other than me. The truth is that throughout life we will make some poor decisions. Of course, those poor decisions carry with them consequences, some worse than others. However, it's not all bad if we at least learn something as a result of it all. The tragedy would be if we went through it all and learned nothing.

Ok, so experience is an excellent teacher but there is something even better. Scripture tells us that one of the jobs of the Holy Spirit is to be our teacher. The great thing about learning from him is that it saves us all the pain and junk that comes from learning from the school of hard knocks. Remember, when I said I hesitated to hop on board with the jr. high student? I'm convinced that my "Teacher" was speaking at that very moment but I wasn't listening. I ran right past that Holy Spirit stop sign and applied for admission to the school of hard knocks. Of course, the school happily accepted me. Here's the point, the Holy Spirit is always speaking. He's always teaching us and if we'll make a decision to stop and listen for that still small voice, we will learn volumes. He'll help us to make wise decisions. Now, it doesn't mean that we will never again make a bad decision, but if we will learn to listen to the Holy Spirit, those poor decisions will become fewer and fewer.