People say that God doesn't speak audibly anymore. I don't know if I believe this. I think maybe we're just not listening.

I just read "Do You Think I'm Beautiful" by Angela Thomas. One of the chapters is on the noise and clutter in our lives. It spoke to me, and made me think a little further. This noise is why we cannot hear God. The Bible says that He has a still, small voice. When you're surrounded by carhorns, subwoofers, shouting people (because that is the only way, it seems, to be heard anymore), and the noise in our own heads. I don't know about you, but it's loud in there. It may die down for a few moments, but then it starts again. Like rush hour on a busy highway, there is the morning, noon, and evening version, with only a short lull for the dinner hour before the trucks take over. And that is when it is the loudest--at night, when those Mack trucks of doubt and insecurity assail.

And this is my blog, so I can be completely candid, right? Sometimes, I feel that no matter how awesome God thinks I am, that doesn't matter, because human beings don't. What a pitiful sinner I am to think that. And to presume that it matters. Do we realize--ever--that the God of Creation, the most powerful Power, the Force that makes the universal glue of Star Wars fame seem no greater than duct tape (although duct tape is awesome and quite comparable to the Force, with a dark side and a light side and a bond that holds the universe together) thinks we are great? He created us in His image. He makes time for us. We can BOLDLY enter His throne room any time we want! Why don't we?

When you start to realize this, you not only finally get what John Piper has been ranting about for so long, but you also wonder why you are sitting at your computer reading a blog when you should be running through the streets screaming, "Jesus love you!" But then you hear that voice. The one that made its way through all the noise, the stress, the fear, the depression, the confusion, the insecurity. You hear Him whisper to you, "I know what I'm doing. I'm putting you here for a reason. Now close your mouth and listen so you don't miss the ways you can tell people I love them."

I have thought for so long that there was no way I could completely serve God unless I gave up the whole teaching thing and did the ministry thing. Then one day, one of my friends talked about his teaching job and how it was a ministry. He talked about loving kids that got no love at home, and how he could reflect Jesus on them. I realized I've been going about this the wrong way. I wanted to change my circumstances to serve God, when what I needed to do was change my attitude.

Once again, I cry, without concern or inhibition, ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING!
Psalm 45
I Corinthians 13
Philippians 4

That's my random thoughts for the week.