In John 10 Jesus said that his sheep hear his voice, know his voice, and obey his voice.

Makes me wonder sometimes: Do I hear his voice? Sometimes I want to – I really want to hear his voice and know what he is doing.

A lot of times, though, I’m listening for what I want to hear. Maybe sometimes I am am more worried about what I care about then I care about what he is doing and where he is calling me.

Other times I know what he would say and I don’t want to hear it.

I have found that God’s voice in my life is loudest in my brokenness and quietest when I want to prove to everybody how well I’ve got it together.

How well do you prioritize when you spend money? Do you buy it if it’s a good deal even if you don’t need it? Do you buy because it feels good or because you think you earned it? What if you accepted the reality that it is all God’s. Would it change the way you spend money?

What about time? Are there all kinds of things you don’t do to make a difference in the world because you don’t have time, but you spend all Sunday watching Football? Not that Football is bad, but maybe we need to call apples apples. Maybe we don’t do what we should do sometimes because we choose to keep that time for ourselves and we need to be honest when we evaluate our priorities and stewardship of our time.

This stuff ain’t the fun stuff, but it is the real stuff that separates the talkers from the ones who are ready to accept this journey.

May we be changed where it matters.

So how do we keep Christ the center of this season in the world we live? How is it that we give to others and Christ has to us? Its an age old debate and one that will likely be very hard to ever have a correct answer too. Our Sunday discussions revolved around this.

One comment made that stuck out to me was that with the culture and area we live in it is truly almost impossible to change how Christmas is viewed here. Presents for kids mainly. But it doesnt detract from the fact we all shared ways of how to keep our kids engaged and even ourselves engaged on keeping Christ the center of our celebrations.

“I was going through personal issues and this reaffirmed my faith,” said the woman who saw the face of Jesus in an iron.

Before you think about it I’m already making the t-shirts: “Jesus Ironed out all my Wrinkles.”

I believe in miracles, but I can’t help but frustrated and/or embarrassed by this. I get how something small like this can sometimes be personally uplifting – if the timing is right, but how did it end up in the news? I guess it looks like Jesus but does every long haired bearded image have to be Jesus?? Maybe it’s just affirmation that Rob Zombie is with this lady.

I applaud her ability to find Jesus in all things but I am also surprised at how quickly superstitions and misplaced iconism creeps into our faith.

What will you do with today? Reflect on yesterday? The past? Look toward the future? Or concentrate on today?