What is the most annoying sound to you? What's the sound that makes you go to a unhappy place? For me, it's my alarm clock. I hate that thing. Don't get me wrong - I need it. I count on it. It saves me every day. It keeps me employed and my kids in school, but the sound that comes out of it is horrid. (The people who make alarm clock noises must really hate life. We all should be praying for them on a daily basis.)
Every now and then a company will make the colossal mistake of having an alarm clock go off in one of their commercials. You know; you've seen them. They reenact someone sleeping in bed who can't get up because she didn't take their sleep aid pill. You just know what's coming, yet you don't believe they'll actually do it. But they do - the alarm starts going. Sometimes they let the alarm go for a few seconds...pure torture. I instantly turn it off. I yell at them (to myself), "Do you want people to buy your product or are you sick or bitter and want to ruin your company?" No one in their right mind enjoys hearing that sound. It doesn't matter what time of the day it is, that noise always sucks. (Did I mention how much I really hate the alarm clock sound?)
You may be thinking, "Just buy another alarm clock - one that gives pleasant sounds." Or you may be thinking, "Just change the setting to radio, Stupid." I tried that; it doesn't work for me. I need that annoying, abrasive sound to get me up. The birds chirping or songs playing seem to lull me deeper. And there must be millions of people in the world just like me, because they're still making these obnoxious alarm clocks today.
My relationship with my alarm clock is a lot like my relationship with God. There are many times I just don't want to move when I'm being told to. I just want to do it in my own timing, when I'm well, good, and ready. His voice becomes like an annoyance that I just want to ignore and act like I can't hear.
Recently, some pretty tragic and eye-opening events have happened around me and in me - alarms, if you will. A few weeks ago my neighbor took his own life right outside his home with a shotgun, leaving behind a wife and seven-year-old daughter. I wasn't home when it happened, but I heard all about it. Cops and CSI swarmed our neighborhood while people were trying to figure out what just happened. It's like someone struck our little community with a giant taser gun and just walked away with no explanation of why. How do you explain something like this to a seven-year-old daughter, to your own kids? About a month earlier, he and his wife were fighting over something. I had just gotten home from work, and I saw him propped up against a post, head down, looking defeated and worn out. As soon as I saw him, I immediately felt God pulling me toward him, but I pulled back. I didn't want to get up; I just wanted to lay there. I hit the snooze button.
And then just recently, someone that I have had contact with in the past suddenly died. God has been constantly trying to get me to get together with him, talk with him, spend time with him. But I've refused. Something else would always come up camouflaged as something more important. One night he even called me. For whatever reason, I didn't pick up. I tried calling him the next day but he didn't answer.
What a way to learn a lesson. Why do we do this? Why do we stay asleep? Now, I'm not blaming myself for these two deaths. But I am asking myself, What did I do to help them? Why didn't I go with God when He was pulling me toward them? The Creator of everything walked ahead of me with something that He wanted to give them, and I didn't want to follow. I think we need to ask ourselves the hard questions and let them settle. Let God be the filter. There are certain things that need to drip through - the pure truth of what we need out of that particular situation.
It's so easy to sleep through life, isn't it? To just lay there and do things at your own pace and in your own timing. To just do the bare minimum. What a way to pay back the Man who stepped in front of the bus for you, who made it possible to never die, who loves us with a love that can actually consume us.
Are there alarms buzzing in your life and you don't even realize it? Have you turned and pulled the sheets over your head so often that it's become a habit that you can't stop? Are we following God, or are we following ourselves? Did we forget the real purpose of us being here? When He speaks, we have to listen. A life could be hanging in the balance and maybe our own in the process.
"I know all the things you do, and that you have a reputation for being alive but you are dead. Wake up!" (Rev. 3:1 + a message to a church)
Wake up, please...they need us!
Every now and then a company will make the colossal mistake of having an alarm clock go off in one of their commercials. You know; you've seen them. They reenact someone sleeping in bed who can't get up because she didn't take their sleep aid pill. You just know what's coming, yet you don't believe they'll actually do it. But they do - the alarm starts going. Sometimes they let the alarm go for a few seconds...pure torture. I instantly turn it off. I yell at them (to myself), "Do you want people to buy your product or are you sick or bitter and want to ruin your company?" No one in their right mind enjoys hearing that sound. It doesn't matter what time of the day it is, that noise always sucks. (Did I mention how much I really hate the alarm clock sound?)
You may be thinking, "Just buy another alarm clock - one that gives pleasant sounds." Or you may be thinking, "Just change the setting to radio, Stupid." I tried that; it doesn't work for me. I need that annoying, abrasive sound to get me up. The birds chirping or songs playing seem to lull me deeper. And there must be millions of people in the world just like me, because they're still making these obnoxious alarm clocks today.
My relationship with my alarm clock is a lot like my relationship with God. There are many times I just don't want to move when I'm being told to. I just want to do it in my own timing, when I'm well, good, and ready. His voice becomes like an annoyance that I just want to ignore and act like I can't hear.
Recently, some pretty tragic and eye-opening events have happened around me and in me - alarms, if you will. A few weeks ago my neighbor took his own life right outside his home with a shotgun, leaving behind a wife and seven-year-old daughter. I wasn't home when it happened, but I heard all about it. Cops and CSI swarmed our neighborhood while people were trying to figure out what just happened. It's like someone struck our little community with a giant taser gun and just walked away with no explanation of why. How do you explain something like this to a seven-year-old daughter, to your own kids? About a month earlier, he and his wife were fighting over something. I had just gotten home from work, and I saw him propped up against a post, head down, looking defeated and worn out. As soon as I saw him, I immediately felt God pulling me toward him, but I pulled back. I didn't want to get up; I just wanted to lay there. I hit the snooze button.
And then just recently, someone that I have had contact with in the past suddenly died. God has been constantly trying to get me to get together with him, talk with him, spend time with him. But I've refused. Something else would always come up camouflaged as something more important. One night he even called me. For whatever reason, I didn't pick up. I tried calling him the next day but he didn't answer.
What a way to learn a lesson. Why do we do this? Why do we stay asleep? Now, I'm not blaming myself for these two deaths. But I am asking myself, What did I do to help them? Why didn't I go with God when He was pulling me toward them? The Creator of everything walked ahead of me with something that He wanted to give them, and I didn't want to follow. I think we need to ask ourselves the hard questions and let them settle. Let God be the filter. There are certain things that need to drip through - the pure truth of what we need out of that particular situation.
It's so easy to sleep through life, isn't it? To just lay there and do things at your own pace and in your own timing. To just do the bare minimum. What a way to pay back the Man who stepped in front of the bus for you, who made it possible to never die, who loves us with a love that can actually consume us.
Are there alarms buzzing in your life and you don't even realize it? Have you turned and pulled the sheets over your head so often that it's become a habit that you can't stop? Are we following God, or are we following ourselves? Did we forget the real purpose of us being here? When He speaks, we have to listen. A life could be hanging in the balance and maybe our own in the process.
"I know all the things you do, and that you have a reputation for being alive but you are dead. Wake up!" (Rev. 3:1 + a message to a church)
Wake up, please...they need us!
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