Another Flat Tire

Another flat tire this morning. As I moaned about how frequently we have these, Don explained that the metal rims are corroded and so the tires don’t lean in tight and that’s what deflates them. (I think. Not overly interested in the causes, I just don’t want them!) 

Yesterday in Bible study we did an exercise in listening to God’s voice speaking to each of us. Some of us found it easier than others to distinguish what he might be saying from what we might be thinking ourselves. 

Perhaps spiritual corrosion keeps us from leaning in to God and being aware of his presence, his stillness, his peace, his voice. Spiritual corrosion resulting, perhaps, from overly-busy schedules, lack of teaching, even disbelief that he would want to speak to me.

I believe God speaks frequently to each of us, but that most of the time his words fall on deaf spiritual ears. Today I aim to lean in more, to take risks and to step out in faith.

No more flat spiritual tires.

Turn it down!

This will immediately give my age away. We went to a ceilidh (Scottish country dances) on the weekend, and the music was just too loud.

It was a good band, and if we had been able to dance perhaps I’d not have noticed. But with Don’s recent leg surgery, we were confined to the table with the other non-dancers, who all seemed to feel a need to keep up a conversation. Which is fine, if you can hear each other.

The conversations were interesting. I think. But I couldn’t hear everything that was being said. And my own throat began to hurt with the strain of shouting into another person’s ear.

At least there was a woman there who is younger than me, who had to flee the noise because of a headache developing.

Life in the twenty-first century is just too loud. Have you noticed that? Many people don’t feel comfortable unless there is music playing in their ears; when they walk in the fields and forests, they do so accompanied by the sounds of their favourite bands rather than the birds and bees. 

If you can’t even hear the birds and bees, how on earth do you ever think you’ll be able to hear God?

We walked out of the hall into the cool evening. The stars were out. And as we drove into the silence, we both breathed a sigh of relief. 

Now I can hear, if only I will listen.