DAD, TURN IT DOWN!

 

 

This is going to be a short email--Nothing fancy. Actually, I am working on a book, so I am a little tired of typing, and editing, and typing and editing, and...you get the point (I'll share more about that in the weeks ahead). But I really need to share something that happened last night. I have written something similar to this before, but I never tire of gaining revelation of what God desires from me from my kids. My kids...yes, they are probably the deepest theologians I know. They ever paint one of the clearest pictures of God.

So, last night I broke down on the highway. Yeah, I was stranded on the exit ramp on one of the busiest freeways in Houston. Several times I watched as cars and tractor trailers veered off at the last second before plunging me into the concrete rail. But I made it home...four hours later (If you use the free towing with the insurance be prepared to wait a while).

I finally get home and my wife picked me up from the mechanic shop where the tow truck dropped me and my car. When I got in my wife's  car, my twin boys were in the back seat with all kinds of questions. Dad, what happened? Dad, where have you been? Dad, what's that over there? Dad...?

But all of a sudden the questions stopped. I turned up the music for them (they like to jam to Christian music in the car) and began to talk to my wife about the day's events. Silence from the back seat. Nothing.  No head bobbing, no fighting, no beating the seat like its a set of drums, nothing! Then my son, Christian, comes out of nowhere and says, "Hey guys can someone turn down the music." Raven and I ignored him because the music was not that loud. I could barely hear it. Then he blurted out again, "Please turn down the music!" OK. Ok. As soon as we turned it down my son said, "I couldn't hear you dad." I wasn't even talking to him, though. Then I realized what he was doing. He just wanted to sit and listen to what I had to say, but he couldn't hear over the music. I was so elated at that moment that my son wanted to hear me speak even though it wasn't necessarily to him. He loved me so that he found joy in just listening to me speak. WOW. What if we had that joy with our heavenly Father?

What distractions are in our life that we need to turn down?

Maybe we could turn off the TV, radio, or internet and pick up our Bible to hear God speak. I pray that for us all. We can all do better!

You know, this reminds me of the story of Mary and Martha. I will not tell you the whole story, because maybe you should tune me out and read it for yourself... (Luke 10:38-42).

Father, in Jesus name, help us to have the joy in listening to you. Help us turn down the manifold distractions that come our way every day. I just want to hear You speak. Nothing else compares. Amen.