Today’s Word Is ATTENTION

Several years ago, an anonymous donor in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida paid for a series of messages on billboards and buses, such as …

Let’s Meet At My House Sunday Before The Game. ­ God

I Love You … I Love You … I Love You. ­ God

Loved The Wedding, Invite Me To The Marriage. ­ God

These billboards were a gentle reminder that God is trying to communicate with each of us all day every day. How do you stay in tune with God each day?

Nature moments are one way God gets my attention during the day. My back yard is all woods … that does it … serene and thought provoking. Other nature moments include sunrises and sunsets, hummingbirds, flowers, rainbows, and more.

There are teaching moments where God gets my attention. Perhaps a new expression of God is presented to me, maybe during a conversation or while reading something. It makes me light up, and say, “Thank you, Lord.”

God gets my attention when I interact with people. Sometimes they let a clue pop out that tells me they might be hurting or might need some encouragement. I can’t help everyone I meet, but sometimes the nudge of God says, “Do something for this one.”

How does God get your attention? Surely, he would not have to resort to the two-by-four method, although for some of us it might be what is necessary, at least to get the flow going. God generally operates by the whisper or nudge methods, putting things around us to marvel and enjoy, to take faith strides, to increase in wisdom, or to touch a life and make a difference.

My son Josh once had a dog named Larry who was amazingly focused on his master. At one place where they lived in an apartment complex, there was an outdoor area where residents would take their dogs to run and play. The average dog was overly engrossed in what other dogs were doing. Some would run loose from their owners to check out the other dogs. But not Larry. He watched his master. He loved to catch a frisbee or run together with Josh. He sat, shook “hands,” stayed close, or ran far away and back … all at the direction of his master.

Once when I kept Larry for a several-week stay, I realized that Larry thought of me as his focus while Josh was not around. I could tell that he was always aware of what I was doing, but one particular action caught my attention. Every time we would go up or down the stairs together, he would stay at my side, not running ahead as one might expect. If I ran up the steps, so did Larry. If I went slowly, so did he, making sure to stay perfectly in sync, never getting ahead nor too far behind.

Inquiring with Josh, I learned that he taught Larry to do this because they lived in a third-floor apartment. The purpose was for Larry not to trip up other people using the stairway. This took Josh some time to teach. If they went up one flight and Larry got too far ahead, they would go back to the bottom and start over, as many times as necessary, patiently and mildly, until Larry knew what to do.

What a marvelous lesson I gleaned from this. Could I be that focused on my master? Larry was the happiest and most well-behaved dog around. Everyone loved Larry. And it was all because his master had his full attention. It is the same with God, showing us how to keep our full attention on him. I must admit I am not there yet, but I have noticeably improved over the years, learning how to be in step with the master. It molds us into the happiest people around.

“… and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith …” Hebrews 12:1b-2a

I hope God has your attention today,

Chaplain Mark