I was in a doctor’s office a few weeks ago and I heard the doctor come out with a patient.  The patient was a young man in high school.  It sounded like he was quite the track star and the doctor was asking all sorts of questions about how he was doing in track.  The last question the doctor asked him was, “What’s it like to have all those people screaming and cheering for you in a race?  How does that feel?”  The young man said, “You know it’s funny, when I’m running a race I only hear two voices; the voice of my coach and the voice of my dad.” 

     As Christians we need to be like this young man.  Paul says in 1Cor. 9:24 that we are runners in a race and we strive to win the prize of the goal that is set before us.  In this race are many distractions, so we have to learn to be focused to the point of having our eyes fixed on the prize and not let anything distract us.  We need to be focused to the point that the only voice we hear is the voice of our Father God and the voice of our Coach-the Holy Spirit.

     Last month for Mother’s Day, in the worship service I mentioned something along these lines.  When a woman becomes a mother it changes her.  She starts doing things she wouldn’t have done earlier because once she becomes a mother, her life is not her own any more.  She’s living for someone else.  In the process of this she becomes so attentive her children’s voice because she spends so much time with her child.  I was at one of my son’s baseball games and overheard a group of mothers talking.  They were stating how whenever they hear a group of kids being rowdy and their kid is in that group, it always seems like their kid is the loudest whether they actually are or not.  While some of that may be parental paranoia, I think it’s also due to their being so attentive to their child’s voice that even when there’s lots of loud noises and voices, the voice of their child rises above all else.  

       Here’s some encouraging news.  Jesus is the same way with us.  Remember the story of the disciples in a boat with Jesus when the wind started to blow and the waves started crashing against the boat?  Yet, in all this chaos, Jesus was asleep in the boat.  The storm was so bad, it was to the point of sinking their boat, and Jesus was still sleeping.  What was it that woke up Jesus?  Was it the waves?  The wind?  The thunder and lightning?  No-it was the voice of His disciples crying out for His help.  His ear is just as attentive to your cry as He was to the disciples.  May we be just as attentive to His voice.