Brooke Yerrington: Unprompted "Listening"

Have you ever felt that the world is weighing down on your shoulders? Or perhaps that you were spreading yourself too thin? Well, I have. The struggles of life can be difficult and the expectations unbearable, and to think we are only in college; we still have our whole life ahead of us. We have graduation, finding a job, maintaining the job, managing money, finding "the one", getting married, buying a house, paying off the house, taking care of loans, taking care of kids, raising the kids, and all so they can grow up to go through the same life cycle we did. Sometimes I sit back and think it is just not worth it because it makes me feel like all I want to do is quit, pack up and go home. But then something happens every single time I hit rock bottom on my emotional scale, someone or something happens to pick up my spirits in which that "someone" or "something" encourages me to keep going. It is during those times when I actually feel God's presence and His love and mercy that He yearns to give to me. I do not understand God's timing and why He chooses to help me when He does, but I guess that all comes with the mystery of God.

I can remember two specific times when I woke up in the middle of the night, knowing the busy day that awaits me and still not being able to go to bed. Instantly, whenever this happens, I know God is trying to get my attention and I fight to go back to sleeps until I give in and reach for my bible and start reading. It is probably the most intimate time I could ever spend with God. Are three a.m. dates, in which I am getting pretty used to now, literally makes me feel like the rest of the world is sleeping and only God and I are up. I know in reality many people are actually up but to sense the aloneness with Him is an irreplaceable feeling. In both of those nights God completely slapped me in the face with things He had been trying to tell me for a long time. It is kind of comical how we, as human beings, think we cannot hear God, when in reality He is always talking to us, we just finally have to shut up and listen. Maybe that is why He likes to wake us up in the middle of the night, because He knows that we will be too tired to talk, and so we sit and listen. I cannot even imagine how well off my life would be if I would just listened to God all day long. I am happy that I have realized the importance of listening and how God so eagerly wants to talk to us.

Listening will keep you from getting into trouble or getting out of trouble and it will most definitely benefit your life as long as you are listening to the right people. Further more, listening to God's word will help you in more ways than one, especially those who are wanting to give up on life's goals, life's ambitions and the joy that life carries. I encourage whoever reads this that if you are going through a tough time, sit and be still before God, listen to Him for He longs to talk to you and let His words renew your strength.