The Blessings of Listening

I haven’t had a voice since yesterday morning, and let me tell you, even though it has only been a short time, it has truly been a learning experience.
 
If you’ve ever had laryngitis, you would have noticed that it is a very odd feeling to be without the ability to speak on the fly. You really have to pick and choose if what you’re going to say is important enough to attempt. Yesterday I spent some time in the chapel, and I meditated upon what it really means to listen to what God is telling me and to what is going on around me. This is what I wrote:

“Thank you God for letting me live such a joyful life in a world of such discontent. You take my BREATH away. You leave me SPEECHLESS. There are no words to describe your nature.

People, imagine being mute in God’s presence. Mute in thoughts, mute in actions, mute in speech, mute in vision. What if all we did was listen? What if all we thought, heard, did, said, and envisioned was a direct magnification of your desires? Imagine.

I cannot speak, for the only things I have to say are not of you. Everything I see when I look around is either a reflection of the beauty that you are or a part of the corruption that you have warned me about. Everything I think has to do with you. Everything I tell other people is a auditory response to what you have told me. All that I say is spoken with wisdom and in love. Every action, even breathing, I recognize as a great blessing and thank you for it. I rejoice and praise you for every morning I get to wake up and see the light peering in through the windows. Every moment I live I am thankful for.

What if we really lived like this? What if we really could tune out all of our desires and focus entirely on what your desires are? We could then say;
Lord, you take my LIFE away and you replace it with love worth living for.”

I challenge you to try to be more mindful this Easter season and this year. Make a mental effort to think about God more often than Sunday mornings. Drawing closer to God and scheduling time in your day to be alone with god will certainly make it easier. Don’t have enough time, you say? Approximately how many minutes a day do you waste time on Facebook or watching television? Replace some (or all) of that time you spend with American culture with time spent on God. Which outlet provides gratification and positive effects on your life? Which outlet do you identify yourself with?

Hope you got something out of this. Blessings,

-Jordan