Silent and Dumb

1.1.2010

Luke 1:20 20 And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.” ESV

Today, I’m thinking about a man I heard of who bags garbage for a living in a dump outside the Peruvian city of Trujillo (true-hee-oh). He makes about six bucks a day digging through the rubbish, and who knows what else, to find recyclables to sell. It is tedious and probably terrible work and yet he does it day after day after day. I wonder what his response would be if an angel visibly showed up at the dump and audibly said, “Do not be afraid for I am here to tell you about God and the wondrous freedom that is yours in Him!”

Day after day after day the priest Zechariah did his work at the temple and his life drudged on and on – that is until one day an angel showed up at work and told him he was going to have a son who would be great before the Lord and would make ready a people prepare for their Lord. Zechariah’s response was something like, “Say what!? God doesn’t do stuff like that!”

This is a new year and I am reading a new version of the Scripture and I am listening for the things God is going to say to me throughout the year. I have the choice to listen very carefully or to miss His words and not believe. I want to hear. I want to apply, and I want to see the wonder of the Lord in my life that maybe somehow I can tell that garbage man (or someone like him) about Jesus.

Father God,

You speak and expect us to listen and obey. I don’t want to be like Zechariah, just plodding along. Lord, I want to hear and then tell what the Good Lord has done for me. Help me to hear and help me to speak, I pray in Jesus’ Name, amen.