032708

March 27, 2008

God, Can You Repeat That?

by Shana Schutte

When I telephone my friend, Suzanne, and ask her a question such as, "How was your day?" and it's not the positive response I'm looking for, sometimes I tease and say, "OK, let's start over." From there, I restate the question and wait for a more interesting--or digestible--answer. It's become a joke between us. Sometimes I get what I want the second time around and sometimes I don't.

This reminds me of how we can communicate with God. We ask Him for guidance. "Lord, do you want me to get a new job?" "Should I move to another state?" "Is it best for me to give my money to that woman in my church?" Then, because God is good and faithful, He answers. But sometimes we don't like His response, so just like I am with my friend Suzanne, we want to ask God to start over and give us a different answer. And sometimes if we don't like His answer, we act like we haven't heard him at all.

This is called "selective hearing." It's what some husbands do when they are watching football and don't want to be interrupted, and what students do when they don't want to hear their teacher. Selective hearing makes us tune-out whoever is speaking; so it's like they never said a word.

Tuning-out God will make us act like we haven't heard Him when indeed we have. My friend recently conversed with a woman who is disillusioned with God's apparent silence. "He's not saying anything to me," she lamented. After a few moments, my friend discerned that the woman is not suffering from silence, but rather from selective hearing because she didn't like God's answer.

Ah! I've been there, have you? Unfortunately, when I've responded to God this way, my problem is most often not a hearing problem, it's an arguing problem. I want to learn to listen when God speaks the first time, how about you?

"Do not be like the horse or mule, which have no understandging but must be controlled by bit or bridle or they will not come to you." (Psalm 32:9)

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