sing in a crowded room, or live as a Christian in the world.
Imagine,
for a moment, walking into a room where a number of people you know are
in conversation. If you then attempt to sing a song, how many times do you
think you will get interrupted, or lose track and have to start over? If
its a song you just learned, perhaps you will forget some of the words.
It would be much easier to go into a different room by yourself, memorizing
the song until you are confident you won’t forget it. Even so, if you
re-enter the first room, you may find yourself starting over with each interruption.
This experience is not much different keeping our focus in living the Christian life. We’re called to live in the world, to let our light shine on a hill top. But like attempting to sing a song with many interruptions, we can often lose our place. We must be in the world, but not of the world, as John 15 says. We must remain pure in heart yet remain in dialogue. So how do we do it?
1. The more we sing the song the more we remember the melody. Pray and reflect on God’s Word each day as a reminder of the “song.”
2. Dancing to the rhythm of the song helps to keep it in our mind. Find ways to let the Word become a part of the way you live each moment so that when you’re challenged by dissenting voices, you have a habit of living by the melody of the song.
3. Form a quartet so you can sing in harmony. Surround yourself we people who share the same values, that are also “pure in heart”.
4. Take voice lessons. Be formed through your participation in your church, your youth ministry program and your religious formation classes.
5. Practice, practice practice. The more you practice virtue, the more you remain faithful by habit instead of by force.
6. Rest the voice. When the challenging voices get to be too much pull away and be alone with God.
“Blessed are the pure in heart” is sometimes translated, “Blessed are the single-hearted.” In a world of so many messages, it’s hard to keep our focus on the voice of God. It’s also hard sometimes to recognize His voice out there among all the others. But God’s voice is both in our solitude and out in the world. The more you know His voice in one place the more likely you are to recognize it in another. Peace!
Love in Jesus,
Pat Rinker
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