In the Gospel of Mark chapter 4, Jesus begins his parable of the seed with “Listen” and he ends with “Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.” This took me back to a time in the 70s when we shouted out on our CB Radio (Citizen’s Band Radio) “Breaker, Breaker, has anybody got their ears on?” Coming from a truck driving family, a CB radio was a big deal. The perfect Christmas gift, along with a great antenna for better reception, was a fun new way of communication. Many of our friends had one as well.  We all made up a “handle” (name) that we identified ourselves with so we could talk.  When we were ready to communicate with our friends, we would call out on channel 19 (talk channel) to see who had their ears on. It might be a friend, a stranger nearby 😳, or someone in another country, all depending on the time of the day or night. If we could not understand them, we turned up the squelch to drown out some of the noise.
In this parable Jesus is calling out not just to his disciples but to all those listening in the crowd. He is asking them, “do you really have your spiritual ears on to a point of understanding what I am saying?” Many times, we have our ears on, we hear the call, but ever so quickly, the voice fades away. Could it be our antenna has suddenly turned directions? Then, hearing the call again, we answer, but instead of fine tuning our channel we tune to another voice coming on as well. “O this is the call I need” we say, because we like the tickling of our ears and we do not turn back to find the True voice. Then there are other times the call is loud and clear. We rejoice at what we just heard. We claim “this is just what I needed to hear!” “O what joy!”  Only to get up the next morning with a sadness of holding on to a lifeless memory that was once our hope, the channel is lost. Perhaps if we had just turned the squelch up a bit to drown out the other voices, turned the knob a little to the right, we might had gotten better reception? So, what do we do with the True call we long to hear, to keep tuned to? How can we know that we know that this is the One? The answer is in the preparing to hear that still small voice. It is the fine tuning from coming over and over to the same channel. The same time of listening with “ears to hear” to The Voice that quiets our souls, that refreshes the mind to a place of rest. Knowing that this is our channel day or night that we can call out to and respond to  “the Lover of our souls” and we answer with  “I got my ears on ready hear what You have to say!”



“It is January 2020, and today starts the year of clear vision” came confidently from my mouth. Well, this little emoji   is how I looked on March 2020. I am a planner; my job is to keep things flowing. I am always looking ahead and thinking about the next months and on to the next year. My vision was unclear, and I felt like I could not proceed. I remember pacing and finding it hard to settle. Not just a work but at home and in life. I remember thinking, “how could things just stop?” Well, I could have stopped and remain immobile, but that is not God’s plan for us to stop. His plan has always been for us to trust Him, to let Him, Be Thou My Vision. The Lord knows what we have need of. Little did I know but He had already prepared my year by also giving me a scripture in January as well. Romans 15:13-Paul said to the Romans “I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. THEN you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.” God is not only our source of hope, but He is hope.

 As I sought the Lord for a word to share, Patient Endurance settled into my spirit. I was recently reading in the book of Colossians, one of my favorite books of the Bible and came across these verses that spoke greatly to me.

Colossians 1:11 – 13 NLT says “We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy, always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light. For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.”

 

I find these words to be extremely encouraging and very good news. What struck me as I read this recently, in light of our COVID-19 stay at home order was needing or having endurance and patience during this time. I don’t know about you, but I could sure use to develop that quality/virtue/character trait in myself with all of the challenges we are facing at this time. Everyone is experiencing different levels of stress and anxiety through this event, but we who know Jesus have an advocate in the Holy Spirit of God. You see, it is with all his glorious power that God Himself empowers and enables us to obey the word He gives, and to develop those characteristics that we will need to bring glory to our God and His Name through all of our challenges and adversities we will face; because we will face challenges, adversity, sickness and suffering in this life. The Holy Spirit will work these things in us as we surrender to Him and let God have His way in us.

 

It appears as though many are suffering loneliness during this time. I know that there are times that we do not “feel” God’s presence, but His word assures us that He is with us and will not leave us. (Hebrews 13:5) If we set our hearts to seek Him, to worship Him, to pray, and to stay in the Word, He has promised to meet us and be with us. I am a hugger, and I admit I am missing so many people in my life and the hugs. Patient endurance will help me get through until I can hug again and God will not leave me, He is with me, and with you.