Life in headphones
I was listening to some worship music today through my laptop speakers and grabbed my headphones to make the experience more immersive and I thought “no, I’ll leave the headphones off so this music can fill my home and maybe even bless my wife Crys as she hears it floating down the hall”. I had the thought: that’s actually very true of life in general, especially when it comes to our pursuit of God. I have in the past been very self-centered, wanting to absorb the things of God for myself, for my edification, for the building up of myself, for my own strength. I’ve been wearing headphones.
What God truly desires for His children, and I pray that you won’t read this through religious eyes, is for us to be representatives, to re-present His works in our lives to those around us. If we are faithful to tell of His goodness, His good works in our lives, the miraculous experiences we have with Him, we’ll never have to preach to anyone. People will be beating down our doors to find out how to get what we have. Everyone wants a daddy like God.
Now, to be clear, I think it’s perfectly naturally for new believers to go through a phase that’s fairly self-centered. After all, He has saved us from a life of sin and has turned our hearts away from the things that used to ensnare us. The natural reaction is to focus our attention on the things that we believe He wants us to change in our lives, as if His primary goal is to modify our behaviour. The truth is that God wants to have a very different dialog with His sons and daughters; a conversation that’s much more about who you are and how you see yourself than what He does or doesn’t want you to be doing.
The key is trust.
Trust His timing, trust His process. Trust that if you’re not currently in a place where your hearts desire is truly to seek Him for His sake and not your own, that He will soon change your heart. Trust that He’ll do whatever is necessary to remove any obstacles that stand in the way of a genuine two-way relationship with Him. Then, as He begins to change your heart and replaces the selfishness with love, little by little, be faithful to leave the headphones off and let the others around you enjoy what He’s doing. It’ll be the best thing they’ve heard in a long time, maybe ever.
