Notifications

In our digital age, it seems like we are overrun by notifications.  Every app on your smartphone, every email software package, and every messaging client sends a constant barrage of notifications that something has happened.  Gone are the days when you have to actually wonder if someone has sent you a message, if a friend has posted that they're having coffee, or if it's your turn in Words with Friends.  What I'm finding increasingly discouraging, however, is that it is very difficult now to disconnect, and it's even more difficult to focus on a task without the pressure of knowing there are other things that want my attention.  I can't help but think, though, that it would be so nice if our messages from God came in the same manner.  How cool would it be if you were facing a situation and you were wondering if it was some sort of message from God meant just for your instruction or benefit and a notification would present itself as if to say yes, this is a message from God... pay attention.  Long stretches without prayer?  Weekends away with no worship?  No problem, you didn't miss a thing... you have 2 notifications of God messages that you've missed.  Click, click.... got 'em.

As a good friend of mine has said... "Guess what Snowflake, it doesn't work that way".  God's messages can be subtle, discreet, sometimes hidden in the turmoil.  The real lesson most often comes in the search, not in the discovery. God's messages to us are normally lessons that we have already learned - sometimes what we hoped for, sometimes not, but it was necessary for us to look for them... search for them... desperately seek them... and experience all the things that stand in front of them before we truly understand them.  So don't expect a little popup counter to tell you that God has sent you a message.  Instead, do the work.  See what God needs you to see along the way.  Talk to Him.  Praise him for what He might do in your life.  Thank him for not always giving you what you want... we all know how ugly THAT would be...  Wade through the messes that you make to find what God has to teach you.  It's like back in our school days:  You cannot just give the answer to the story problem.  You have to show your work.  Learning the lesson only comes from working through the process, not from checking the back of the book for the answer.  Let the Holy Spirit move you... lift you up... give you peace.  That's how you'll know that something has happened.

Peace,

Mike