Satellite radio is great blessing

One of the many blessings of a daily commute is satellite radio! It’s really a great bonus and if your car is equipped for it, I highly recommend it. They are not very expensive and you have over 120 channels of all the news you can handle, music of every shape and size, comedy channels, and sports channels. There is even an audiobook channel where you can listen to people read great books.

In the morning there is a radio station out of New York that I listen to from time to time. The host often takes calls from listeners. And with everyone, he tells them “thanks for listening” . Many times, I’ve noted, the listener says something like “I love you guys” or “I love the show”. The radio host will say back to the caller “We love you more” and it is really kind of neat to hear. It is not a surprise why they do so well because he openly expresses his love and thanks for the listener.

It got me thinking the other day that I’ll bet God doesn’t get to thank us for listening very often. We simply don’t listen to God because to do that would require tuning out the world around us. It would mean shutting off the radio and TV and noise around us and sitting still. Lo and behold you will probably fall asleep, but listening to God takes work.

The Thanksgiving season is upon us, and I suppose one could argue every day is worth giving thanks! But I especially believe that as it relates to God and the spiritual life! Oprah once said that if you took a journal and every night wrote down 5 different things you are thankful for it would change your life! Let’s take this on! Every night, put it on your phone, a scrap piece of paper, a notebook, write down 5 things you are thankful for in your life. Then, tomorrow night, think of 5 different ones and so on. It will change your life.

Don’t forget, however, to put down we give thanks to God who promises to always listen, to always hear the cry of our hearts and promised to hear our prayers! (1 Samuel 17). And we say to God “thanks for listening, I love you” and God will respond “I love you more!”

Pr. Doug Givan