Hearing God. Part 3. Make some room.

Well it’s been 3 weeks... 🎶since you looked at me... no wait that’s a song and I promised not to sing. This is a Blog not a Sing Along after all. 

Anyways... back to the subject of Hearing God. 

As you can tell I can struggle with staying focused sometime. Most of the time? Alright fine almost all the time. But keep that quiet I don’t want it getting out. 

This weeks Hearing God “homework” was again meditating on some specific verses in the Bible so that means reading something and mulling it over and journaling about it AKA staying focused long enough to hear God speak, I can’t even write my first sentence of this blog without my mind grabbing and adapting a 90’s song reference to fit my situation so imagine the difficulty if you can of meditating. 

There is so many snags that pull a little focus here a little time there but the big snag in my life has always been TV. 

Just before Nicole and I stared this Hearing God course I felt, like many times before, that I needed to fast from TV.  I decided yes this time I will do it.

But I failed. Again...

I’ve tried to not have the apps on my phone only to come back with a great justification, in my mind, why now I could handle it and the cycle would continue and I would again find myself trapped unable to escape. 

I would actually go so far as to say TV became an addiction in my life. 

Back in June of 2012 when I started this blog the title of the first entry was “The Creativity Killer” and what was my creativity killer back then? 

You guessed it. TV. 

Well as Andy Stanley said 

“You can’t run from one thing without running toward something else.” 

The reason I have finally overcome TV, this time for real, is because I ran toward something that had the power to push out the desire for TV, it wasn’t just me trying to replace one thing with another.  

I’m not saying watching TV is bad for everyone I’m not even saying it’s bad for me but something needed to break and be uprooted and for me time needs to elapse so this does not take root again in my life. Doing this blog helps. 

Spending Friday and Saturday night working on this blog has been a great way to crowd out my personal menace but there’s more that has transformed for me lately. 

I have fallen in love with worship again. 

My time of praise and prayer has crowded out the time I used to hand over to TV. 

But more then just having worship crowd out my TV time it has replaced the desire for my TV time or for whatever hole was being filled by TV. 

That’s the transformation of the Holy Spirit. 

No two ways about it. 

I looked at Netflix for example and there were some shows that I was considering that I thought “No that’s not good for my spiritual or mental health I’m putting that on the no list.” Last week it was on the watch later list. 

Doing this Hearing God course for me was like stepping off a precipice I had no idea what I was in for but I have been more then pleasantly surprised I feel like I’m a new man. 

I now find myself riding the train home listening to songs and my eyes close sometimes I start to sing a little and I lift my hands up in a posture of worship and you know what I don’t care how that looks cuz it’s wonderful. It’s better then singing Christmas carols in public Buddy the Elf style. 

I know this may seem pretty weird or hyper Jesus but it’s just me being the real me, finally. 

But a changed heart isn’t just about raised hands it’s about hands extended in love. 

This week I had the chance to talk with some neighbors about my personal experience with forgiveness and the healing that came with it. 

For the first time in my life I’m less afraid of what people will think of me then I am in loving those same people. 

That’s what I think the biggest change has been lately.

If your reading this I love you and I’m sorry if I’ve met you and didn’t show you that, next time will be different because I’m going to be different. 

Covid may stop me from hugging you, (and your lucky because I’m a hugger.) but it can’t stop me from loving you.

I’m super pumped about what session 4 and the subsequent week to follow of Hearing God will unfold in my life. 

I’m Jason and this is life as I see it.