I’m a bit obsessed when it comes to those little red dots. I am subconsciously drawn to eliminate them. I want them off my phone. You know what I mean, that red dot with a number on the upper right hand corner of an app icon that tells you that you have notifications waiting action. In my mind, they’re like little time bombs waiting to go off and I have to eliminate them. Die you red dot – die!
Yesterday I was helping as friends cancel an unwanted subscription to a digital service. No biggie. But as I worked off his iPad, my OCD kicked in when I saw his mail icon.
3994 unread emails. Let me say it again – 3994 unread emails. And in the 90 seconds i took to cancel the digital service, it went to 3997.
Why? For the love of all that is pure, why? My mind was torn. Start eliminating them, or stare at it till it reaches 4000? I gave the tablet back before my mind exploded. I could hear the tick-tick in my head.
When I joked about the number, he just said he hated junk mail and that was all he ever got. I mean, what if it was a notice of winning Publishers Clearing House? Or a letter from a long lost relative reaching out after using ancestry.com? Or maybe a lawyer telling him he has inherited an Irish castle because cousin George was really royalty? Or even an email with a cute cat video? Such treasures just sitting there.
As I ponder this dilemma, I realize I kind of do the same thing with God. He is reaching out to me all the time. Talking through His Word, communicating through circumstances, prodding me through people, and shouting and whispering through the Spirit – yet I let His messages go unread.
Sometimes, I don’t read the Bible, I get too self absorbed to see Him working around me, and drown out the Spirit with noise from the world.
So today, I will take make the effort to listen better. I will open his Word and cherish the time. I may have to ignore some little red dots, but will not ignore Him.
Muddy Shoes by Todd 
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