Needing a Holy Spirit Hearing Aid

 

After arriving home from work in the wee hours of the morning, my son Kevin blissfully slept in in the comfort of his bed while his fiance Alexandria was in her home office, teaching English to schoolkids in China online. Suddenly their cat Iniko came bursting through the dog door with a still-alive bird in her mouth, which unexpectedly got free and started flying around the house in a panic, shedding feathers like rain! Poor Alex was able to grab the cat, then she burst into the bedroom and threw it onto sleeping Kevin, who woke up with a start and in his sleep-numbed state thought she said, “Entertain her for me while I teach the class!”

Obligingly, Kevin tried to get the cat to cuddle in bed with him, to no avail... or to play with its toys (not interested), his shoestrings (nope)... anything other than scratching and howling at the door to get back out! He couldn't figure out why the cat was so crazy to hang with Alex that morning, but did his best to “entertain” her for his beloved so she could teach her class. Finally after an hour he gave up, and texted Alex to say, “I can't do this. The cat just wants to be with you.”

By this time Alex's class was over and she explained to him what had happened. What she had said to him when dumping the cat in the room was not "Entertain the cat", but “Come help me catch this bird”!!! She must've been so confused, wondering why he stayed locked up in the room with the cat while she was trying to catch the bird and teach her class at the same time! She did finally manage to grab the latter and throw it back outside, leaving the house littered in feathers!! At least the Chinese students must've been vastly entertained; I'm sure they think we Americans live pretty crazy lives!

This story intrigued me for more than its entertainment purposes; I've lived it!... albeit not with cats and captured birds. But perhaps there has been a time in your life, as well, when you thought you had received certain instructions, worked diligently if unsuccessfully at following them... only to find out later that what you were doing was not what was intended at all. In my attempts to find my purpose in the Kingdom of God I have mistakenly thought He wanted me to be in charge of the nursery at one church, assume the financial duties of treasurer in another ministry, and later lead a women's fellowship group after the current president retired from the job. I did my best in each of these attempts, yet ended each with a plea to God to release me, saying as Kevin did, “I can't do this.”

God knew that, of course. He had never intended for me to take on any of those positions, because He knew I hadn't the giftings to succeed in any of those situations. I was right in pursuing His direction, right in my willingness to serve... but wrong in what I thought I heard Him say. It became apparent to me that I was serving out of a mistaken sense of duty. Each of the jobs I had taken on needed filling, and in my attempt to serve the Lord I loved, I thought it was my Christian obligation to fill those spots... whether I liked what I was doing, or not. And I did not. My willingness was all I brought to those positions... and it wasn't enough.

Finally I told the Lord that I found myself resenting the latest job I had taken on because it took time away from what I really wanted to do, which was to write... that there was a joy in that activity that I didn't find in any other area of service. And suddenly I understood that that was what He had intended for me to do all along. I found joy in scribing words because He had given me the ability to put them together well... for His purposes. I simply hadn't heard His leadings in that direction because I was operating from a more conventional list of service options.

The relief and excitement that followed that revelation was indescribable. I resigned from my leadership position immediately, and just as quickly received a new assignment in the area of my joy, confirmed independently of each other by two people I trusted as followers of Christ to know the sound of the Shepherd's voice. And I have simply never looked back.

I still struggle at times when the pastor speaks of needs in the church that are waiting for volunteers, and truly we all bear a measure of responsibility in doing whatever needs to be done. But I listen a little more closely now to the Voice I follow... so that I'm not spending all my energy calming the cat when I'm supposed to be catching the bird.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”

(Proverbs 3:5-6 NKJV)

Conversation Connector

“Remind me to do that,” my husband requests.

“No problem!” is my standard reply. “I've got an app for that.” And then I add his request to the multi-page list, grateful that my phone's memory is so much better than mine. We use that app for everything in our lives these days, from telling us where we need to go and when, to what to bring, to even what we wanted to say to each other along the way!

If my phone is my memory in the physical realm, it's the Holy Spirit's job in the spiritual world to bring back to my remembrance all the things I tend to forget. Some items on the list are indeed things God wants me to do, places He wants me to go, and words He wants me to speak. But mostly the Holy Spirit's job is to remind me of what God has already done. Psalm 103:2 tells us to “forget not all His benefits.” And then it lists just a few of them...forgiveness, healing, redemption, compassion, provision, justice...in a list even longer than the one on my phone.

The list of what God has done for mankind as a whole is enough to inspire an outpouring of praise. But it's the things He's done for me personally that pull at my heart and draw me into a closer embrace with my Creator. Answers to prayers that only His ears have heard, desires of my heart still unspoken yet granted, jokes we've shared, and experiences we've been through together...these are the moments that make up a loving relationship with God. And yet it seems that they are unintentionally dismissed from our memory almost as quickly as they happen. We need that Holy Spirit nudge to suddenly see God's face turned our way, His eyes meeting ours as He says, “I remember the conversation we had about that – do you?”

We tend to forget that there is another Kingdom in operation in our lives. So much of God's goodness and His many answers to our prayers – the evidence of His care - we attribute to mere coincidence, and in doing so we lose more than just an opportunity to give God the glory and praise He deserves. We steal from that moment its power to transform our lives with the acute awareness of God's love.

Recently I saw a video of two little kids who apparently had long begged their parents for a dog. One day as they worked together on their homework at the kitchen table, their father walked through the room, setting a box down on the floor beside the table in passing. The kids continued talking and working without noticing that a puppy was peeking up at them over the edge of the box. Suddenly the little girl caught a glimpse of it. She froze and stared at the dog for the longest time as she tried to process what she was seeing. Then she turned to her father and said, “Is that for us? You bought us a dog? It's really for us?” Surprisingly, she then covered her face with her hands and broke out in tears. She didn't initially go near the dog, instead she simply stood there crying, repeatedly lifting her face from her hands to choke out the words, “Thank you! Thank you so much!” Even when she was seated on the floor with her brother, the puppy between them, as she reached out to touch it for the first time, she stopped and was overwhelmed again, her heart and eyes overflowing with grateful tears. Clearly the moment wasn't about a puppy at that point; she was simply overwhelmed by her father's love.

I want to be that girl. And so I look to the Holy Spirit for help in transforming me from my thoughtless and greedy self into the thankful and grateful girl I long to be. “Remind me!,” I plead, and He does so, over and over again through the course of the day, that God is thinking about me, loving me, and blessing me in more ways than I ever thought possible.

The girl in the video had yet to even pet the answer to her prayers when her dad came over and enveloped her in a loving hug, so touched was he by her response to his gift. Maybe God has the Holy Spirit connect the gifts He gives us with our past conversations, not so much because that remembrance brings us joy...but because of the joy those connections bring to Him.

“But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them...”

(John 16:4 NKJV)