Weed-eaters, Dirt Daubers, & God's Voice

From Henry’s Desk

 

For God does speak-now one way, now another- though man may not perceive it. (Job 33:14, NIV)

I was thinking today about a time, the Lord spoke to me in what I thought was an unusual way.  As a matter of fact, it was so unusual that I missed it.  What really made it unusual is the fact that it came in a very normal and usual way.

One day around the end of winter and beginning of spring, I was preparing to do some weed-eating.  I went out to the shed, got out my weed-eater and started trying to crank it.  I did all the right stuff, but the weed-eater would not even try to start.

After a bit, I decided it was not going to start and put it back in the shed.  As I was closing the shed door I found myself thinking about an incident in Junior High shop class.  The teacher used to sabotage a lawn mower engine and we would have to figure out what was wrong with it and then get it started.  I remembered the time he stuffed a paper towel into the muffler keeping it from starting.  I walked back up to the house and never gave it another thought.

A few days later, I took the weed-eater to a small engine repair shop and told them it wouldn’t start.  The mechanic took a small nail or some such thing, stuck it into the muffler opening and broke up a dirt dauber nest that was in it.  The weed-eater then started right up.

Then I understood about the memory from shop class.  God was talking to me in an unusual way using a usual function of my mind, to be exact, a memory.  I would have saved myself a lot of time and effort if I had recognized that God was speaking to me with that memory, telling me what to do to fix the weed-eater and get it started.

I wonder how many times in our lives God has been speaking to us in one way or another, but we didn’t realize it.  How much time, effort, finances, etc. would have been saved if we had been expecting God to speak to us, and then paid attention.

I think that I’m going to remember that God does speak, that He does it one way or another, and I’m going to pay better attention.