Paying Attention

I’ve heard people say that God never shows them anything that influences their lives. Well, the reason why we don’t hear God and not see the miracles that are by His hand here on earth is that our world is TOO LOUD and we are TOO DISTRACTED by all of the things that we busy ourselves with every day.

Think of it, we are bombarded by noises and visual stimuli all day long, from the moment that we wake up (to your alarm clock) to the television that you watch at night. In between those times are car horns, jets flying overhead, telephones, radios and lots of people to engage with. I won’t even talk about computers, cell phones, PDAs, iPads, etc. My Goodness, where’s the quiet?

The quiet is where God is. You may not be hearing His voice because His voice can’t be heard!

Try this. Whenever you feel most relaxed – could be in the morning, or at night – go to a quiet place. Maybe it’s a room, outside away from the action, a library, etc. Close your eyes and visualize a beautiful landscape, or road in front of you. At the end of that road is a colorful sunset or something that you find calming, but that inspires you. Breathe regularly. Push the stress out through your breath.

After a few minutes, when you feel calm, simply ask God to be with you. I say “I am here, God”; you could choose something different. It’s not praying, or asking God to tell you your purpose. It’s just being there and waiting patiently as you relax. If you don’t sense anything, that’s OK. At least your forming a connection.

God very rarely says something directly to me. But, I’ll hear His words through other people, or see His actions in things that are around me. How many times have you looked at something or seen something and said, “my God, that is beautiful!” Well yes, from God it is beautiful. It was placed there just for you.

So, try it. Try slowing down for God and he will communicate with you. The thing is that He will communicate with you when He’s ready, not necessarily when you ask him to. You have to train yourself to wait for Him. He’ll say something, or do something for you. You just need to be paying attention to what you see and hear.

1 in 5

I wear a wristband that says “1 in 5″ on it. It is from my support of the Pituitary Network Association and I wear it proudly all the time – even in the shower. What it means is that current findings show that one out of every five people suffers from a pituitary tumor of varying size and complexity. Mine happened to be quite large, requiring an involved and lengthy surgery to remove most of it.

I’m typically a pretty private person, but I will always talk openly when people ask me what 1 in 5 means. Without going into a lot of detail I say that I had a benign brain tumor that took away the functioning of my pituitary gland, and now I supplement all of the hormones that the pituitary gland usually produces – ranging from cortisone to testosterone to desmopressin, which controls fluid retention.

I guess that I’m open about it so that people won’t be scared of it, and that they can see that I am still a functioning person that’s capable of doing most of the things that “normal” people do. I want them to feel the strength of believing in yourself and feeling that you can overcome difficult situations. I don’t do it to brag, I just do it to pass on strength.

I also happen to have a Myers Briggs personality type of ENFP – extroverted, intuitive, feeling and perceiving. In this personality classification I am 1 in 14 people. My Goodness, I could get caught up in being so out of the norm, but in reality, I feel special. I feel like God has deliberately challenged me to use who I naturally am to overcome difficult situations and help others to see that they can do it too.

Do you have something that you consider to be special about you? Tell your story. I would love to hear it!