Follow the Bouncing Ball

He has torn the veil.  He has spilled His blood.  He has given us an inheritance and His Spirit. He has poured out forgiveness and His word.  He asks us to believe.  He calls us to action.  He invites us to listen for specifics, to get to know His voice, and to respond to do the work of His Kingdom in our time.  He will always make a way to provide the means for what He asks. 

We sometimes pray prayers that continue to ask Him to do the work that He has asked of us.  When we pray “Keep our hearts and minds and eyes on You,” we may be acknowledging our struggle to stay focused; but maybe we are simply not willing to keep at the effort of following, to lean in to get to know Him, to take the time to listen, to let Him become King of every area of our lives.  We would be better off if we stop throwing the ball back into God’s court.

Jesus came and did it…prayed, listened, taught, fed, befriended, healed, forgave.  This isn’t a tennis game; it is a mission.  Are we in or not?  We can work up a sweat of bouncing the ball back, but never really participating in the work forward.  We walk off the court, wiping our brow and pretending we’ve engaged, when we’ve just deflected every invitation He sent.

Granted, we do need His mercy and His help continually, but let’s be sure we are doing our part to learn and hear and yield and respond.  We can do a quick check by asking ourselves this: “When did I last hear His voice? What did He say?  How did I respond—dismissing, continuing the conversation to learn more, obeying what was clear?”

When was the last time God “offended” me by suggesting I do something contrary to what I was inclining toward? When was the last time He surprised me by His delight in me? Both will certainly happen when we each are giving Him room to speak into our lives.

Follow the bouncing ball and discover the song He is singing.

Photograph from morguefile.com by dieraecherin