Monday Morning Quarterback; Reflections from your Pastor

          Have you ever tried to really concentrate in a noisy environment? When I was in seminary, the reading and homework was so heavy that it was a constant in your life. I recall one time when I took my daughters to a skating rink with all the loud music and flashing lights. And I brought my homework (no, I don’t skate because I don’t like falling down!) I found that I was able to zone out the noise and focus on the task at hand. While at the same time I could look for the girls having a good time and wave when they went by. To be honest, I’m not sure if I could still do that.

As we seek to listen to God’s voice in our lives, we are inundated with so many other voices, so much noise in our life. It’s like trying to tune in a radio station when there is too much interference. We are called to listen for the voice of the good shepherd, Jesus, but how can we possibly here that voice of truth in the midst of the cacophony of the world? I believe that it is possible, but it requires an intentional practice of listening. It requires that we practice a type of discernment that sorts out all the mixed garbled messages of our culture in order to receive the spirit signal that God desires for us. Simply stated, we need to tune in to the Jesus message and ignore the static of the messages of our culture that conflict with Jesus message of love and forgiveness. If our culture tells us to hate, we know it is not of God. If our culture tells us to hurt, we know it is not of God. When our culture tells us to focus on ourselves and our needs, we can be sure that is not the voice of Jesus. You see what I mean? We know what we are called to do, but we often listen to the static noise of our world, because it is the popular thing to do. So if you want to listen for the voice off the Good Shepherd, fine tune your heart and mind to receive the strong signal from the source, Jesus Christ our savior and Lord.