Listen! Listen!

One day, a little girl was in her preschool class. The other children were with their teacher at circle time. This little girl, however, always had difficulty sitting with the other children. This particular day, she was fascinated with the computer and the office chair at the

teacher's desk. The class aide stayed close by to be ensure the child's safety. (Now, before you jump to the conclusion that the aide should have just made the child sit with the others, let me say there were valid reasons why, in this case, she did not. Classroom management in a preschool classroom is not the point of this story.)

Anyway, the little girl climbed up on the chair. The aide got her down. She tried again. The aide sat down on the chair and tried to direct the child's attention to the story. After a while of doing this, the little girl took the aide's hand and began to pull her toward the other children in the circle. Thinking the little girl finally wanted to join the others, the aide went with her. 

When they neared the circle, the child dropped the aide's hand and firmly told her "Listen! Listen!" She then returned to the computer. The aide followed. No matter how much the little tyke tried to redirect the aide's attention, she still was not allowed to climb on a rolling chair or mess with the computer.

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Do we sometimes do that with God? Might there be some "fascinating" things in our lives that we know are wrong? Things we do. Things we say. Ways we relate to others in an unhealthy manner. Attitudes we harbor in our hearts. Deep down inside, we know these things are wrong, but we don't want to give them up.

God speaks to us about them. He speaks through others. He speaks in His still small voice to our hearts. He speaks through His Word. But we don't want to listen. We don't like it when He tries to correct the problem area.

So what do we do? We point our fingers at others. "Just look what is going wrong over there, God! Listen! Listen! Listen to all the problems everywhere else. Go clean up that really big mess over there, God. Listen to them, and leave me alone. I want to go back to what I was doing."

Thankfully, God is not easily distracted. He doesn't give up. He cares enough about us to not leave us alone. Hear what He says to us. 

"Listen! Listen! Leave behind this thing that will harm you. I have something much better in store for you. Listen! Listen! Listen to me!"

The question is...will we listen to Him?