Being noticed by God

I am outside and standing in the sun, waiting for God to notice me.  Before this, I am getting my mail.  Birds chirp.  Wind blows.  Leaves move.  Light pierces moving leaves.  I walk back to my yard, then stop.  I am alone.  No people.  No man. No woman.

Alone.

I stand in the sun letting it heat my shirt.  I wait for God to notice me.

I wait for some sign. Something that shows me he sees me and is reaching out to me.  Some clearly deliberate thing to happen.  Maybe a bird lands in front of me, looks at me, and approaches me.  It chirps.  It waits for me to chirp back (somehow it makes this known.)  I imitate it's whistle.  It does it back.  As I type I hear birds chirping to each other.  Echoing each other's chirp, the same rhythm and melody, one lower, the other higher.  One nearer.  The other farther.

They are responding to each other.  Alive.  In sync.  Relating.

I am typing, in my house, looking at the sun shining on leaves, feeling the shade of my house, seeing the breeze on the trees in my yard, not looking at the keys as I type, waiting for God to notice me. 

How do I know if he's noticing me?  Really?  The same way I know if any other person is noticing me.  When I am outside I see a man with a red shirt on, talking on a cell phone, approaching his mail box.  I notice him.  But how does he know I notice him?  He doesn't, as far as I can tell.  He is not looking at me, or in my direction, and I am not trying to get his attention.

How do I know if God is trying to get my attention, like me getting the attention of the man in the red shirt?

I'm noticing the birds, but so is everyone else in my neighborhood.  Where is everyone else, other than the man in the red shirt?

What if it is just me at home right now? 

Creation.
Sun.
Trees.
Breeze.

None of these have minds, emotions, or wills.
They can't reach out to me.
But they can by used by their Creator.
How would he write me a message in the dirt, or the sky?
How would he call to me through a birds so that I know the bird is his messenger?

Maybe Adam waits in Eden for God to notice him.  But he does.  He speaks to Adam.  "From these trees eat.  From this tree don't eat or you'll die."

God speaks to the first man and woman.  Even to the serpent.

God notices them disobeying him.

God notices the man alone, puts him to sleep, takes a rib, closes the flesh, and makes a woman.

Why?

God notices the man alone and says, "It is not good for the man to be alone.  I will make him a complimentary companion."

He makes the woman and brings her to the man.
The man notices the woman; she, alone, is like him among all creatures.  He names her. 

I am waiting for God to notice me, to speak to me, to come to me. 

I am sitting in my living room.  Will he come?  Will an angel?  Will someone risen from the dead?

A revelation is God noticing me, revealing something he sees, hears, feels, thinks, chooses.

Am I alone?
I know I can pray.
I know God is everywhere at once, seeing all, knowing all, holding all together by his power.  Even me. 

This is God noticing me.
To be alive is to be noticed by God.
He is not passive.
He actively keeps me alive.
To be alive is to be noticed by God.
To be alive means God is paying attention...to me.

"In Him we live and move and have our being."

YOU ARE NOT ALONE.

From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.
Acts 17:26-27

Whether you have a lot of friends or a few, you can feel alone in a room full of people, or in bed with one.  Alone with your thoughts and feelings.  Alone in your pain, or worse, in your joy.

So you go out.  You call someone.  You text someone else. 
He answers.
She responds.

The feeling is still there.
After you meet, greet, smile, and hug, what's in you is still yours...alone.

Who is really with you, feeling you, listening to you, all of the time?
One word comes to mind, but you're afraid to say it.
You're afraid it's cliché, and that my words will leave you feeling by yourself.

Consider this.
Do you feel alone while you're reading?

If not, then say the one word.
I'll ask again.
Who is really with YOU, the one reading my words; feeling you, listening to you, all of the time.

GOD.

How can you know?
It is written,

"The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit." 
Psalms 34:18

The Spirit says again to you,
"The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth." Psalms 145:18

If you are broken hearted and crushed in spirit, call on the LORD in truth. 
In total honesty.
Don't say what you think you're supposed to say, but what you really deeply feel.
I promise you, after you do, you won't feel alone.

You are not alone.

 

God is with you.

 

I am with you.

 

I love you.

THE EASIEST WAY TO GET and Keep ATTENTION‏ (Part 3)

How do children get and keep a parent’s attention? Three ways: 1)Children YELL! 2.)They literally GET IN YOUR FACE. 3)They REPEAT your name until you respond. These three things give children the power of attention based on their number one assumption: THEIR DIVINE RIGHT TO YOUR ATTENTION! This they assume as they exit the womb! Now on earth, we consider these things OBNOXIOUS. (Being cute helps them get away with it…sometimes!) But they do succeed in making it impossible to be ignored. Isn’t that what YOU want? Isn’t that why you’re even reading part 3!? Now of course, you don’t want to go to those lengths, but you want to use the principles behind those lengths. Make sure your voice can be heard. (Children YELL.) Wait for eye contact, and REFUSE to speak until you have it. (GET IN THEIR FACE.) If possible, say the name of the one you’re talking to. (It’s near impossible to ignore your name…as parents know!) If you’re talking to a crowd, say YOU! (I’m talking to YOU!) When you can be clearly heard and seen, and when you are connected to a specific person, you have gotten his or her attention. By the laws of life, sounds will be heard, and sights will be seen! YOUR VOICE makes a sound, and YOUR BODY can be seen. By just entering the room, you command and keep SOME ATTENTION! God sees you. Why shouldn’t I?

THE EASIEST WAY TO GET and Keep ATTENTION‏ (Part 2)

For the doubters and disbelievers: Imagine you’re in a crowded room. Any crowded room. Anywhere. Someone, ANYONE, comes in and says in a loud voice, “Everybody, listen to ME!” Would that get your attention? Don’t tell me it wouldn’t! I saw a dramatization of the comedian Eddie Murphy as a child. He came into the living room where all of his family was and said, “I have a joke to tell.” Everyone listened. He got and kept their attention. Who doesn’t like a good joke, especially from Eddie Murphy!? My wife told me about a mentally challenged woman who used to routinely say, “I have some good news for you! I have a boyfriend!” Good news. Jokes. Or whatever you find genuinely interesting. If it genuinely interests you, or better put, if it GENUINELY GOT AND KEPT YOUR ATTENTION, then ask for attention and share what captured and kept your focus! You don’t have to be Eddie Murphy. You don’t have to have a boyfriend! But if you’re reading, then you want undivided attention. The only condition to KEEPING ATTENTION is really having something to say. The only condition to GETTING ATTENTION is asking!

THE EASIEST WAY TO GET and Keep ATTENTION‏

"Ask, and it will be given to you." Jesus said this. And “it” means whatever you ask for. Therefore, the easiest way to get and keep attention is to simply ask for it! “May I have your attention please?” (A general announcement) “Alright stop what you’re doin’, cuz I’m about to ruin the image and the style that you’re used to!” (From Shock G’s song “The Humpty Dance) However you ask for it, ask boldly! Why? Well why not? You have something to say, right? You exist! God made you. From the time you were born, you cried out for attention, and you received it! Why? Well why not? You're here! Why shouldn’t I take notice? God does! So if you have something to say and someone to say it to, ask him for his undivided attention, and don’t speak until she gives it! Try it with me! Write me a comment, and see if I don’t respond! I’ll give your response my undivided attention! Thank you for yours.

How to CHANGE ANY BEHAVIOR You Want (Starting TODAY) Part 3

“A gentle answer turns away wrath, but harsh word stirs up anger.”   

Proverbs 15:1

Many of us suffer from a bad temper.  We have one, or live with someone who does.  We hurt, or we get hurt.

Today it ends!

Solomon received his wisdom directly from God!  We’ll put his divinely wise words in the mini map formula:

1.       IF you answer gently, THEN you will turn away intense anger.  The implication:  THEREFORE, answer gently.

2.       Can you do it?  YES.  Solomon is telling you how to do it, if you choose to do so.

3.       Is it worth it?  YOU KNOW IT IS!  You know how much regret you have from losing your temper, or how much pain you’ve felt when someone lost his or her temper with you.

I used to think this verse only focused on “the other person.”  I imagined talking to a man with a bad temper, or a woman whose words are venom.  I saw myself answering her gently, responding to him softly, and deescalating their anger as a result.  This is true, yet God showed me something else.

The primary person’s anger I’m dealing with is my own!  IF I answer gently, THEN I will turn away MY OWN WRATH!  But IF I answer harshly, THEN I will stir up MY OWN ANGER!

Do you see it!?

In other words, if my own gentle answer leaves me livid, how can I be confident it will calm the other livid person!?

So the beauty in God’s wisdom to Solomon is in how you can change your own temper by changing the mini map of cause and effect in your own mind.  Before, you used to feel like this:  IF  I encounter this person and situation, THEN I’m going to LOSE IT!  THEREFORE, when you have the encounter, YOU LOSE IT!  Or you believe IF I give this woman a piece of my mind, THEN I’ll feel better.  THEREFORE, you let her have it! 

But do you REALLY feel better?  Perhaps at that moment, until you calm down later and realize the damage you’ve done; to yourself and her.

If you want to stop doing this damage, or any other damage:

1.       Be reborn of the Spirit.

2.       Be focused on the Spirit.

This is the ultimate change, and the ultimate way to experience every change. 

You can do it!

It is worth it!

How to Make an Undeniable Difference Wherever You Are

“Good, as it ripens, becomes continually more different not only from evil but from other good.”
― C.S. Lewis



By being undeniably different, you are making an undeniable difference, wherever you are, whatever you are doing.

It's simple.

You are the only you right here, right now.

You, alone, being you alone, taking up the time and space that only you can take, are changing the atmosphere as soon as you arrive.

Unless you're not.
That is, unless you're doing everything in your power to be like everybody else around you, doing what they do.

Think of it like this.

C.S. Lewis, when asked what a writer could do to develop a style, gave this answer:

"The way for a person to develop a style is (a) to know exactly what he wants to say, and (b) to be sure he is saying exactly that."

I'm following this as a writer and speaker, but I am also following it in everything I am and everything I do.

You should to.

Wherever you are, and in whatever you do, know exactly what you want to say (or do) and be sure you are saying and doing exactly that.  In doing so, you will stumble upon originality. 

You will say and do things that no one else in heaven, on earth, or in hell would ever consider doing.

You will be universally different, and thus make a universal difference.
You'll have significance with God, with me, and with everybody!

Make an undeniable difference by being undeniably different!
(Image from sodahead.com)