Too Many Voices

Last night I was introduced to the game Heads Up.  If you are unfamiliar with this game, one individual will hold a tablet without looking at the screen, while others on the team try to give clues to the words that appear.  With approximately 10 people on our team, voices got loud trying to communicate the best way possible to the individual doing the guessing.  There was one big problem in the game, there were 9 loud voices all talking at once, all trying to get the attention of our guessing teammate.

Isn't that like life?  There are so many things vying for our attention. Some good, some not so good, some better, and of course there is the best, but with all the noise, sometimes it is difficult to differentiate the voices.  What are the things that distract us in our every day life?  Do we allow work, school, television, social media, friends, sports etc to drown out that which is the best for us?  It isn't that these things are wrong, it isn't that they aren't good, but when we allow something to take too much of our time, when we allow even good things to drown out the best thing, in the end, we lose out.

"Come to me with your ears wide open. Listen, and you will find life.  I will make an everlasting covenant with you. I will give you all the unfailing love I promised to David."  Isaiah 55:3 NLT

When I first read this verse, I wondered how I could listen with closed ears, but I have come to realize that it is so very easy to allow my mind to get distracted from what is going on all around me. I can be thinking of things from yesterday, or things to do tomorrow, and I am not present in the here and now focusing on listening to the correct voices.  Life itself can get so exhausting that I simply check out mentally, just wanting to be entertained.  Who wants to actively listen?

"Then Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest."  Matthew 11:28 NLT

Who are you listening to today?  In the midst off all the noise, can you hear the voice of the One who is calling you into a loving relationship with Himself? What good things, what better things are drowning out the Best thing, the Best One for us all?

"let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance - " Proverbs 1:5 NIV

I don't know about you, but I know I need to practice more listening to the One who loves me.