Something strange occurs in our house around this time of the year. Although I rarely turn our TV on in the daytime, this state of affairs rapidly changes once the cricket season begins. Yes, I love watching our Aussie cricketers—especially when they’re winning! It is exhilarating to see them piling on those runs as they scamper from one end of the pitch to the other. And it is equally exhilarating to watch them bowl out their opponents and send them packing.
But I have discovered something else strange about my behaviour at this time of the year. Even when I choose not to be near our TV, I still turn that cricket coverage on. There is something relaxing about hearing those commentators in the distance from wherever I am in the house. It makes me feel as if summer has truly arrived—and that I can relax for a while and enjoy the moment.
Yet there’s more to it than that. Somehow, that cricket commentary in the background acts as a trigger, resurrecting so many childhood memories. In a moment, I am back there in our old home in Brisbane, playing with my sister or reading, while the sound of the cricket blares out from my father’s radio in another part of the house. At that point in my life, I was not interested in cricket at all. In fact, the sound of it no doubt annoyed my sister and me. Yet now I enjoy that cricket commentary not only for its own sake but also because it evokes such pleasant memories of my father and of those lazy, carefree, summer days of my childhood.
I wonder these days whether I sometimes treat God in the same way I treat that cricket commentary on our TV. How often am I content to relegate God’s voice to the background of my consciousness, enjoying knowing God is there but being too preoccupied with other things to stop and truly listen to what God is saying to me? How often do I read those wonderful passages of Scripture yet fail to pay full attention to them? Do they merely evoke pleasant memories for me at times of God’s past blessings in my life yet fail to touch my spirit as they need to right now?
If I truly want to find out what is happening in those cricket matches, it is not enough just to enjoy the vague sound of that commentary from my study or while preparing a meal in our kitchen. Even if I am already in the lounge room but reading at the same time, I need to put my book aside and focus on what is happening on that TV screen. How much more then do I need to give God my full attention right here and now? How much more important are those words of encouragement and comfort and challenge from God than any cricket commentary?
May 2015 be a year when you and I choose to tune in to God’s voice, listen to and learn from our loving Saviour, live the way God wants us to live and do the things we are being called to do.
My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. John 10:27
Jo-Anne Berthelsen's Blog 