Palm Sunday 2020

As I sit in my quiet home, I miss the laughter and the voices of my grandchildren, even their sarcasm about how short I am or how much my grey hair is making me look like a real “granny”. I miss spending time with my friends, seeing my students & my co-workers. I begin to wonder if this is how Jesus feels when I decide to ‘social distance’ myself from Him at times.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I shy away from Him because some of the things he tells me to do rip away at my flesh or at least make my skin crawl like fingernails on a chalk board. So, to avoid having to do any of those hard chores, I just sort of ‘check out’ for awhile. Oh, I still pray, go to church, pay my tithe and fulfill my obligations as a good Christian, but my heart isn’t really in it. It’s like the time I sent a bowl of butter in my husband’s lunch box instead of the leftover venison back strap he was bragging to his buddies about having for lunch! (BTW – he said I wasn’t putting my heart into his lunches and after I made this mistake TWICE, he decided to make his own lunches and did so until he retired.) I’m so sorry Papa Dub. But back to the issue, I sometimes do the same thing with my heavenly Father. I’m doing what I’m supposed to do, but I’m not climbing up into his lap and really getting close to Him, because I think I’m subconsciously afraid He’s going to tell me to go clean my room or even worse – maybe apologize to someone!

I’ve determined to use this newfound quiet time, that is always there when we step off the hampster wheel for awhile or receive a Stay-At-Home order from your Governor. I’m beginning to cultivate a new deeper intimacy with my spouse and my God. It’s amazing how much easier it is to hear His voice when we slow down.

How will I do it? I will talk to him and then…listen. I recently read a book and took a course called Crucial Conversations, which I highly recommend to anyone who wants to improve your communication skills. One of the common sense strategies, which we all know, was to listen – really listen to the other person. I have the bad habit of half listening to you while I’m planning what I will say next and if you don’t hurry up, I will probably just interrupt you because I know I’ll forget what I wanted to say if I don’t. This isn’t listening! God speaks to us in many ways: through our thoughts, our memories, our emotions, our will, our spouses, our friends, our enemies, His word, other random people, something in nature that suddenly catches our attention, the breeze, an animal, and the list goes on and on because I believe He speaks to each of us in our own special way. He created us, so He knows how to get our attention.

To conclude, He’s always speaking. We just have to learn to hear Him and then to do what He asks us to do, with our heart in it! If we really love Him, we won’t put the butter bowl in the lunch box…again!