Shouting On My Path

   When I contemplate why I do what I do, I am often surprised, and sometimes shamed.

   Take this morning…I wake up, look at the clock, decide to get up and get out .

   Why?

   I like the quiet of the early morning. I say that I want to hear God speak where there are no distractions around to spoil it.

   But what if those distractions ARE God speaking, but I don't give them a chance to be what He intended.

   Two examples:

   As I walked through our old neighborhood, I heard a front door opening and turned to see who it might be. Our former next door neighbor was coming down his front steps to gather up his morning papers.

   My instinct was to give him a "hello" and continue my solitary walk. But I didn't, I stopped and picked up his papers to hand to him. He then engaged me in conversation, and we chatted for a few minutes. He wanted to talk, and we did, probably 10 minutes or so. Nothing earth-shattering, just what was going on in his life.

   As I continued on, coming out of that little section, I noticed a man walking on the cart path across the pond. My first thought was that maybe I should walk the other way, so as to be able to keep up my silent reverie.

   But I walked as I planned, and, as he came out of the path and began to cross the road to the next fairway, I breathed a sigh of relief. He was continuing to walk the path and then would be walking away from me and not toward.

   I would not be pulled away from my personal thoughts of what God might want me to see this morning. Good.

   But, as I looked up, here he came back out of the path and toward me. It was too late to turn back, and so I walked on.

   He wanted to talk about something in the condos where we both lived. So I listened, and then we both went on our respective ways.

   As I walked on down the path toward home, I thought:

   "Had I been deliberately shunning the people that God had put in my path?"

   "How many times had I gone the other way, or just kept walking, when I should have given the other person the courtesy of listening, or at least acknowledging that they were real?"

   "How many times do I use the excuse that I want that time to myself, to hear from God, when He is actually shouting to me to be aware?"

   "Would I rather see deer on my path, because as I approach they will run away, and I won't have to talk to them?"

   The blue heron in the pond watched as I approached him this morning, then turned and flew away. He did not want to talk, but others on my way did, and I was put there to listen, obediently, I believe.

   Selfishness is not good…

   Obedience, even to shouting, is…

   Thanks God, for breaking into my silence today.

   Light my path anytime You want…, Please