One of our dear more mature members (let’s just say she’s in her 10th decade on this earth) remarked to me Sunday as she left worship: “I ask the Lord every morning what he wants me to do today. He generally has something in mind.” She put in two sentences what I had just tried to say in about a twenty-five minute sermon.
As we strive to “be the message” by finding God’s purpose for our day . . . week, month, year, life . . . we would do well to begin with her question: “What do you want me to do with this day (week, month, year, life) Lord?” But, having asked the question, we then need to be in a listening posture to discover what the Lord has in mind. How do we do that? How do we listen? How does this dear saint in Christ discover what the Lord has in mind for her day? By living a life in step with Christ. By living a listening life.
Seems to me this listening must involve our sense of sight or observation as much as our sense of hearing. In the language of the “Be the Message” series it’s loving the one in front of you, which requires first seeing the one in front of you. Seeing that one for who they are in God’s eyes.
I’m not sure we do that very well. In fact, I’ll just say that I do not always do that very well. I see what my biases have conditioned me to see, not always what God would have me see. I see the outward, surface things of the one in front of me, but not always the deeper things. I see what the one in front me may be projecting, but not always what they are trying so hard to hide. I see what I want to see, but not always what God sees.
Which makes me wonder what the one looking at me sees? Do they see someone who is willing to listen? Or, do they see someone who’s in a hurry? Someone who’s busy? Preoccupied? Do they see someone who is curious? Interested? Attentive? Compassionate? Concerned? Do they see the image, the reflection of Jesus?
What does the one in front of you see?
What do you think God has in mind for them to see?
danielcash 