I had a flashback of Dan Marino cross my mind this weekend.  Maybe it’s the cheesy weight loss commercials he’s doing now that jogged my memory.  The memory was of an interview before his first trip to Arrowhead Stadium to play the Kansas City Chiefs.  Arrowhead had a reputation for causing visiting QB’s trouble communicating with the coaching staff on the sideline because of the crowd noise – this before the advent of in-helmet communication systems.  The interviewer asked Dan if he was worried about the noise confusing him and keeping him from hearing Coach Don Shula.  Dan replied, “No I’m not worried at all.  I’ve trained my ear to pick Coach Shula’s voice out above everything else.  I know where he is on the sideline at all times and I look right at him when he speaks to me.  No problem.” He showed a lot of wisdom for a young QB.

In a section of the Bible known as ‘wisdom literature’, the Book of Proverbs we’re taught, “If you accept God’s words and store up His commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand and fear the Lord.”

Like Arrowhead Stadium back in the day, the world we live and move in offers up lots of noise and confusion.  This text is one that speaks to us the benefit of training our ear to hear wisdom from God, training our eyes to spot God at work in and amongst all the chaos that we call ‘life’, and of developing an insatiable appetite for God’s presence.

With all that goes on around you at home, at school, in the workplace, among family and friends – how are you at hearing God in the mix? 

Today’s text: Proverbs 2