Can You Hear Me Now?

Can You Hear Me Now?

By Dwight Cunkle

Am I responsive to Jesus’ call to take up my cross daily, deny myself and come, follow Him into the world?

Luke 7: 31 “To what then shall I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? 32 They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, “‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;  we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’48 But he who is forgiven little, loves little.”

Jesus describes a people who are unresponsive, not in the mood. They can go through the motions of religion but lack passion to know and love Him and others. Like a sulky teenager, moping around, listless and bored, yet spurning all invitations and suggestions. But that is a space we have all inhabited from time to time.  What invitation to celebrate and give thanks might the Lord be making to me now, that I might not be in the mood to hear? And in what ways, that I tend not to notice, might the Lord be inviting me to sorrow and remorse for my sins-especially of focusing on others and things instead of love for Him and His word?

Read again. Can you hear the frustration in Jesus’s voice? The exasperation of one whose gentle invitations are spurned and ignored? Can I ask the Lord now to transform any moodiness in me? To help me hear his gentle  invitations in my life, and to respond with excitement and delight?

Reading biographical notes on the lives of saintly servants and martyrs inspires us to love and good works I think more than just reading popular books and certainly more than the social media and entertainment we subject ourselves to. Expose your mind to godly lives and see the Scripture come alive in daily living.