Last night my wife and I watched our grandsons, Jake, who is four, and Jack, who is almost seven months. As with most kids those ages, they can be quite a handful, especially Jake, whose energy level is pretty much without limits. We live in a two bedroom apartment, so it is pretty tight quarters for an active four year old. Since Nan needed to give Jack a bath, I decided to take Jake on a walk around the grounds of our apartment complex to see if I could help burn off some of that energy and make the rest of the evening a little less hectic.The walk turned into quite an adventure as Jake immediately took the self-proclaimed role of "leader." It turned out that this was for the best, since I didn’t have an “imaginary, invisible map” like he did. Throughout the adventure he would take out the map, unfold it, and tell me what the map said about which way we should go.
“The map says we have to follow the sidewalk this way!“
The map took us on a journey that included the discovery of gold! It was right where the map said that it was, under the “X” on the ground. All we had to do was dig it up with our imaginary shovels. What a wonderful discovery in these hard economic times!
We also spotted a stray cat that “needed to be rescued,” but was to skittish to allow us to get too close, a giant inflatable snowman, a manager scene missing the baby Jesus, and Christmas lights. After passing by some Christmas lights, Jake spotted more up ahead and said,
“How convenient, more Christmas light up there!”
After a very extensive exploration of the entire complex, traveling most of it more than once, Jake announced,
“The map says we’re lost!”
He then turned to me and with all to melodrama he could muster cried out,
“Just look at the mess you’ve gotten me into!”
All I could do was laugh.
So reflecting on the adventure of last night, got me to thinking about how we, "only being human," often want to blame others for the bad decisions that we make. And how sometimes we even want to blame God, when He was there all along trying to warn us about the trouble ahead, if we had only taken the time to listen.
It is that feeling down on the inside of you that says, “If you do that it isn’t going to turn out good.” But too often we just push right past it and do what we want to do at the time. Or sometimes we just aren’t listening for it at all. And we inevitably find ourselves stuck with the consequences.
The Bible reminds us how to listen for God.
“Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the LORD.” And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.”
I Kings 19: 11-12 (NKJ)
So when all else fails, as it is likely to do, LISTEN! He will speak to you in that "still small voice."
(Author’s note: after all was said and done, we did find our way back home!)
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