"What are you listening to?"

This past Thursday Levi was in a track meet. It was the very first relay race he has ran in. He is considered primarily in Cross Country, but in the off-season it corresponds over to track. With that said, it was one of those take forEVER races....literally. Each of the 4 members ran a mile with the baton. Levi was the anchor which means....you need to have some speed in you to finish this thing up. ; )

As it came his time to run he prepared for the hand off. That went smoothly enough which normally does in this kind of race. But what he wasn't prepared for was the intense cramping up of his stomach after only the first lap around! As I said before, he is in Cross Country and with that you are able to run great distances.....USUALLY. He still had 3 laps to go and needed to turn his wheels on for the last one. I will tell you that Levi is a very awesome sprinter towards the end of his race and that would probably be a very good reason the Coach placed him where he was.

Now the story takes a twist. . . .

He is running and trying to keep his mind off of the present aching pain inside of him. As he continues, his friends began running along the sidelines screaming "Levi, RUN! It's your last lap! Go hard! Finish it up!" He questions them....while still running.....and tells them they are wrong! They continue their urgency in telling him "NO...it's your last! Go hard! Finish!"
Well, if you haven't guessed it by now.....friends were O so  W R O N G! But Levi decided to believe them and therefore decided to give it ALL he had knowing that the sooner he finished....the sooner this pain would stop. Levi is also one to do well when the competition is in front of him. But what he didn't know was it was the wrong competition he was running hard to get in front of! They put the Freshmen with the JV and ran them together.....very confusing race to say the least. So here we have the scene. . . 1. Boy with bad cramps. 2. Boy with no visible way of knowing exactly who is competition and who isn't. 3. Boy with screaming friends telling him wrong information. 4. Boy gives it all he has to finish in front of (wrong) competition. 5. Boy finds out ....he has a whole other lap to go. 6. Boy who is exhausted still running.

I will tell you that he did finish the race, but did so with a good throw of the baton to the ground as well as himself. Needless to say, he was disappointed he listened to the friends.

As you may have seen by now, if you've read very many of my blogs, I LOVE to tie things in symbolically. I attempt to tie real day to day life in with our real day to day walk with God. I pray always that something said will help someone somewhere in their life. I ask God to always lead me in wherever these thoughts are going.

So...... with that in mind.....
I begin to see this story that could touch many. Not in the way of "O that's such a wonderful story!" but rather in the example of it .... the content. As I think about this story, I see a few things that stand out in my mind. Primarily the dominant one would be Levi and the wrong voices he listened to. This boy knew the right voice to listen to and that being his Coach, but instead chose to listen to other voices.

How many times in our daily life is other "voices" calling out to us? Do we choose to listen to them or keep our ears on the voice of truth? Do we let those voices change our perspective or do we choose to remain faithful believing in a God Who knows and will see us through?

There are many voices on the sidelines to distract us away from the truth. Sometimes they come in the form of our friends - mainly depending on how close their own walk is with God. I know that if Levi's friends had been staying close to the coach and talking to him, they too could have known the truth and not misled Levi. There's certainly the voice of the greatest deciever ever known. . . that being satan. He wants to call out to you every chance he gets from the sidelines to distract, to mislead, to discourage. But in knowing that ALWAYS know that God is greater, mightier and ruler over satan and he can do absolutely NOTHING that God doesn't allow....for your own good. God is the ruler over all....even satan. 1 Chronicles 29:12 and
1 John 4:4 confirms that! Many times it is US ourselves that can be our own worst enemy. We have doubts, insecurities, fears, mistakes, higher than normal expectations of ourselves that can come plunging at us in lots of different directions. We can assure ourselves in these times that our God loves us, cares about us, guides us and it is His grace and mercy that will carry us through....no matter what......let me say again......NO matter what. His grace is sufficient! And think about it.....God uses our mistakes to make us stronger than we ever could have been before! That in and of itself is enough to shout "AMEN...THANK YA JESUS!!" So quit listening to all your doubts, fears and mistakes for our God is stronger and is making you stronger too!
At times the world is calling out in a very LOUD voice to tell you living for God is useless, boring, doesn't make sense, gets you no where, takes too much faith etc... They know how to candy coat their lies and decieve with the most subtlest deception. Afterall, sin always starts out slowly and innocently doesn't it? My friend, do NOT LISTEN! It's a lie.....you still have another lap to go and you're running this race we call life with God! Hebrews 12:1....."let us lay aside every weight, and the sin that so easily doth beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us." We each have a race set before us. And we know that God is the One with the plans to see us through that race. Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." And in Job 42:1 we see that NO ONE and I mean NO ONE can mess up those plans....not even ourself!! "Then Job replied to the Lord, I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted." That's enough to make you wanna get up and do a happy dance right there!! : )

So my friend.....who and what are you listening to today?

Is it the voice of truth or is it the voice of deception?

1 Chronicles 15:58 "Therefore, my dear brothers (and sisters!), stand FIRM. Let NOTHING move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."
And may we one day be able to say right along with Paul's words "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."