Being dog-eared is a compliment!

Ok, so I have this book that a friend's mom gave me for my graduation that I absolutely fell in love with. I devoured the book, highlighting and underlining away, then passed it on to my brother, gave a copy to a friend, and then it sat on my bookshelf...until about a week ago.

So, the book is called, "Can You Hear Me?: Tuning In to the God Who Speaks" by Brad Jersak. It was such an encouragement to me the first time I read it, but I think I read it so quickly that I didn't fully absorb the message. So, in a desperate and frustrated mood as I was packing to head back to college I stuffed the book in a box, hoping I would find the time to re-read it and that I would find some hope that God had not utterly forsaken my pleas.

I'm only in the 2nd chapter and already I have seen/felt God teaching me. :-) Funny how that works! I've had some stuff on my mind recently that has been causing me no small deal of anxiety, yet I am reminded that the Lord is already talking to me--but my radio may not be dialed to the right frequency.

I think my relationship in hearing from God has been a little like a phone call to a friend where I spend the first half hour jabbering about my life and my experiences, then rush off just when my friend was getting around to telling me about her week. I think I've been doing too much talking and not enough listening! Has prayer become so routine that I am used to simply leaving messages on God's answering machine, hoping He'll get back to me when He has time? No wonder I am often bored. And is He saying, "You think You're bored?"

I love how the Holy Spirit will often point out "random" verses as I read the Bible. And I remember that the scriptures "are the words of a God who is so in love with His creatures that He has condescended to lisp as an infant in order to be understood in the confines of limited human language." But if the rich words of the Bible are just God's words being squished into some kind of written human language, imagine how astounding are the messages that He shows me in prayer--often times analogies and pictures that words can never express. Am I robbing myself of the best by always concentrating on what is written?

Well, my book is quickly becoming ragged as it travels in my backpack for those spare minutes before class, in the line for lunch, or as I workout on the treadmill at the rec center. But maybe being dog-eared isn't so bad!