Let me paint a scene. You’re in a peaceful sleep. You’re dreaming of an epic wizard battle between the Lollypop Guild from Oz and the Energizer Bunny (who knew that either were wizards, right?) when your alarm goes off. Then you realize that it’s the SIXTH time it’s gone off, and you’re about to be late for work. Now you’re rushing to shower and get dressed and oops, almost forgot to brush your teeth. Then it’s that insane traffic. And then you’re late for a meeting and missed 2 calls from your boss. And you have a huge backlog of emails to get through. And somehow you have to fit some actual work around these meetings and phone calls and emails! And, by the way, did anybody see where I left my coffee cup? Then you finally get home, and it’s homework and soccer practice, and “oh yeah, we haven't eaten yet”. Then that new Bible Trivia game show starts tonight with that redneck guy. Good thing you have DVR, you can watch it right before bed. But then you fall asleep during the show, and the next thing you know, it’s wizard battles in dreamland again. And just WHERE did these ninja gummy bears come from?!
Let’s face it. In world where we’re so surrounded by distractions…cell phones, text messages, internet, work, soccer practice, football, homework, television shows (those shows are even interrupted by commercials that are twice as loud), or in my own case, the inability to just shut up for a minute - any minute at any point in the day…Satan has done his very best to make the world around us SO loud and SO busy that we can’t possibly hear God. And let’s be honest, we’ve become pretty adept at times to go along without even noticing. But let’s look at 1 Kings 19 (NLT).
11 “Go out and stand before me on the mountain,” the Lord told him. And as Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper.
SO – we have to take the time to listen to God. We have to cut through the distractions, concentrate on finding God – and Listen for the Whisper! Many of my devotionals are going to be based on Pop Culture twists…like one on Pirates of the Caribbean (there’s a teaser). Finding God wherever you are and whatever you’re doing. Because wherever you are, God is with you. Like Moses and the burning bush, He’s trying to talk to us, but we have to be able to break away from our own business long enough to notice it. And like Elijah on Mount Horeb, you have to be willing to NOT pay attention to the violent winds, the earthquakes, and the fires. We need to train ourselves to cut through the diversions and distractions and see God around us. And that’s what I hope to do with these devotionals. If you’ll read back through that busy scene at the beginning, it probably sounds a lot like your day sometimes…well other than dreams about wizard battles and ninja gummy bears, but we all have our own silly dreams. But, either way, you’ll notice that there was no time in that day I described set aside to pray. Or read my Bible…never mind actually Studying it. Or listening to anything other than the world yelling in my ear. But hopefully through these devotionals, I’ll be able to help us all to understand that EVERYTHING can be spiritual. God is everywhere in everything we do. And He wants to talk to us and give us direction, but only if we take time to Listen for the Whisper.
And that’s what I’ll be calling this devotional: Listen for the Whisper. Hopefully they’ll be an encouragement to those needing uplifting. And hopefully they’ll inspire you to draw closer to God. But more than anything, I hope it inspires you to SEEK God. Make it a challenge to try to find Him in everything you see and do. Because in everything, God is there. But first, it's like Morpheus said in the movie, The Matrix, you need to “free your mind” to break away from the world you see with your eyes, and see the world with the Spiritual Eyes that we’re all supposed to have. And most importantly, we need to Listen for the Whisper.
~Dwayne
