"HAVEN'T YOU BEEN LISTENING?"

“Have you not been paying attention? Have you not been listening? Haven’t you heard these stories all your life? Don’t you understand the foundation of all things?”

-- Isaiah 40:21-22

When I asked myself the above questions this morning, my answer to each of them, I’m sorry to say, was “No”. I haven’t been paying attention to the simple, astonishing truth. I haven’t been listening to what this truth has been telling me, over and over. And no, I have not heard the stories of spiritual reality all my life. God has been telling them to me, but I haven’t really heard them, and therefore, no, I do not understand the foundation of all things. And that’s sad, because what is more important to understand than the foundation of all things? The simple, powerful truth has been trying to tell me amazing facts, like where all of life comes from, where all power resides, and the very nature of all things, and I have been largely deaf to it. I have turned away, day after day, from the most wonderful news there can possibly be. Yes, it’s true that I have a lot of time studying spiritual truths, but I have to admit this morning that very little of it has “sunk in”. I read about the harmonious nature of spiritual reality, and then I go blithely through the day in total ignorance of the truths I studied in the morning. Why would anyone do that? Why would anyone turn his back, day after day, on a treasure beyond imagining? Why would anyone turn away from the wide-open gates of paradise?