Learning to Listen

After the craziness of the last night, and grace shown to me, although undeserved, I felt a distance to read the bible. Weird right? Instead when asking where to read from today, a thought of John 1:1 came to mind. I flipped to the page and read only the first two verses:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning."

 Heading back on the road, after debating whether on stopping by Faith's again because I forgot to give her some important things, strangely I felt that I should not go. Getting back on the road, I turned the radio and GPS on to listen to Klove :). After several hours of driving, it was time to change the station. I felt to go backwards, not sure why but for some reason was looking for something particularity that I did not yet know. I landed on a station which had a man preaching. That's when I heard:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it."

Wow! How crazy! I listened carefully and it was Ravi Zachariah. He was speaking about seeing people. How he would go through the streets of India seeing the Delites, thousands and thousands of poor adults and children, just because of a label. 

He went on to tell a story. 

He walked sternly, trying to avoid the approach of beggars, he was on his way somewhere. That is when he heard a voice from behind him. Sir please, I do no have any one. My father is dead and my mother is sick, and my brother and I do not have even food to eat. He looked behind him to see a face of a little girl. One of the most beautiful faces he had seen of a little girl, it shocked him that she was a beggar. That is when he felt a tug that this was too the face of God's daughters. He got out all the money he had out of his back pocket and gave it to her. By the time he had finished, the green light had turned red and he had to wait again. This is when it hit him. Where the poor and broken are, that IS where GOD IS! He had not know what to do about all the Delites but asked that God will give him eyes like His. And a heart like His. 

As I listened to this sermon, streams of water began falling down my face. I felt such a sorrow and truth that hit. How often have I been the one to put on a stern face. How often! The same things have run through my mind, how can one person reach so many, if you help one, will there not be another? All these things have battled in my heart before. 

The problem that suck out to me this time was, have I been asking God for his heart and eyes? 

I was quickly confronted by the reality that I have been trying to do things myself, plan things my self, by just sympathetic or empathetic is not enough. How will we love if we do not see things like the God of the universe that created each person with a purpose.

I want to challenge you as well. Try asking God to give you his eyes and his heart. 

I think it has been since High School that I used to ask this, and those are the moments that I remember and wonder, what has happened since then? Why have I changed? Now I know. 

Praise God for grace! For reaching out and speaking even through something as old as a radio!

Praise GOD!

Praise GOD!
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~Rachel