The assignment was to come up with a thing to market, and try to sell it to our professor. I was coming up with nothing. For days and days, not one idea. It's hard to make an idea pop into your head on command.
Thankfully, one finally did come around midnight the night before it was due, and it was a good one, if I do say so myself. It was a commercial for Sonic (where I worked part-time while I was going to school). I think of this assignment every time I see a Sonic commercial now (think "Lil' Doggies"), and am sure they need my skills, lol. One day you'll see it on your TV, I'm just sure of it :)
I had to rush out to Walmart in the middle of the night to get poster boards and markers and whatever else I needed to make this happen. It turned out to be one of my favorite assignments of all 9 years of my 4-year degree :)
I'm getting sidetracked though... The point is, there are many times I want to have something to think/say/do, but draw a blank.
It's been like that lately with writing. I have had no words. Blank paper. Blank computer screen. Blank thoughts. I couldn't figure it out. I wanted to write. I wanted to do some blogs, to work on a book, but I was coming up with nothing. I have a journal of ideas, but even that was getting me nowhere. I wanted to share some words from God through my writing, but wasn't hearing any hints from Him.Then it hit me. I hadn't been listening. I was praying, but not as intensely as I had been before. I became busy and let other things become a priority. I prayed for anyone who asked me to, I prayed over Facebook requests, and over some friends I knew who had been struggling. But I hadn't really had a talk with Jesus. And as for reading God's Word, not nearly as regularly as I had been before. It was no wonder I wasn't hearing His gentle nudgings when it came time to get out my laptop.
In my journal I had written about Moses. In Exodus 19, beginning in verse 20, it says, "The LORD descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain."
When Moses wanted to hear from God during this time, or God wanted to speak to him, Moses had to go to the mountain. Up and down he went, relaying messages to the people from God, interceding for the people when they had quickly turned their backs on Him. To have these conversations with God, he had to go to the mountain.
Where is my mountain? What are the conditions that I hear God best?
For me, it is quiet time alone, when I am not feeling rushed, and I can pour my heart out to God and read His Word, highlighter and ink pens in hand, ready to hear what He has to say. Those are the times I feel His direction.
If you, like me, have had a hard time hearing God lately, see if you need to refocus. That was definitely my problem. Though sometimes God's silence is for other reasons, this is a good place to start. If you still can't hear from Him, don't give up. Keep reading, keep praying, and keep looking and listening for Him. He is there.
"Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know." (NIV)
Jeremiah 33:3
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