Monday, August 07, 2017

Listening to the Lawnmower

I have an old lawnmower. I don't know how old, we bought it second hand. I've had to do a few Macgyver-ish repairs to it over the years. The push assist doesn't work anymore. It's covered in duct tape and zip ties. But it mows the lawn.

One interesting thing about it is the sound it makes when the grass bag is full. There's a window in the bag so I should be able to see the grass clippings, but it is so old and dirty I have tried to clean it and it lasts about four minutes. So I have another way to tell when the bag is full: the sound. When grass starts feeding back into the mower there is a distinct clunking sound, different from the other clunking sounds of being an old mower. I know when I hear that sound it's time to stop and empty the grass clippings.

As I was mowing the other day I started to think how this in many ways is like hearing God. If I could choose some other way to tell when the bag was full, I'd do it. In a heartbeat. But I can't. I had to learn to let go of how I wanted things to work and learn to listen to the actual signs in the midst of all the other noise.

Sound like God a little?

Too often we have ideas of how we want God to speak or communicate to us. The problem is, it's not up to us. He does it His way. And until we recognize that we will never hear Him. We will miss His voice in the midst of all the other noise.

So what does God sound like? And will you start listening for Him?

My sheep recognize my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. ~ John 10:27 (TLB)

T

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