The Little Game I Play

Sometimes I play a silly game.
No one knows that I am doing it.
No one even knows if I’m successful when I play.
But I do!

If I go to the pantry and get a handful of pumpkin seeds, I inevitably drop some on the floor.
I am always determined to find the rogue pumpkin seed that got away.
The color of the seed blends into the color of the floor.
I have learned not to rely on my eyes.

However, I have another one of my senses that can help me find it.
Another one of my senses that I rely on.
In order to find whatever it is that might have dropped, I have to pay attention.
I have to listen.

No one plans to drop something on the floor.
I can’t plan when the rogue pumpkin seed or piece of granola will fall.
But after many years of playing this game, I have become quite good.
I can hear where the particular thing falls and find it quite easily.

I am the only one who knows I am playing this listening game.
Practice has helped me find many things.
I can hear if the thing drops at my feet, or to the right of me, or to the left of me.
There is a sense of satisfaction when the lone peanut, pumpkin seed, or granola is found.

It is a different story when I drop something on the rug.
There is nothing to hear.
I can only imagine where it might have fallen.
I have to get down on my hands and knees to see if I am right.

It happened as I was getting dressed.
The last thing I do, is put in the earrings my husband gave me.
No matter how I am dressed, the earrings go in my ears.
I don’t feel completely dressed without them.

This particular day, one of the earrings was being stubborn.
It just would not go into my ear.
There was no rhyme or reason for the difficulty.
I reached down into the little dish on my dresser and picked up the other earring.

When I get ready for bed, I put them in the dish the way they are in my ears.
Left earring on the left side.
Right earring on the right side.
Maybe I mixed them up the night before when I was tired.

It shouldn’t make a difference.
I tried to switch them anyway.
Being left handed, I always put my right earring in first.
After I switched the earring, it went into my ear easily.

I put the other earring in my left ear.
As I reached for the small earring back that fastens to my ear, it fell on my dresser.
I heard it.
I heard it fall behind my vintage alarm clock.

I moved the clock but nothing was there.
I moved the picture of our family but nothing was there.
I moved the picture of my husband and I and our granddaughters but found nothing.
I knew then that the earring back fell onto the rug.

Any woman knows how difficult it is to find a lost earring back.
It’s like a needle in a haystack.
Since our rugs are a lovely, deep tan, the gold earring back would be difficult to find.
I used the flashlight on my phone.

Nothing shimmered.
Nothing was near the wooden baseboard.
Nothing was under the dresser.
I wondered how I could find it myself without asking my husband to move the dresser.

I remembered the gadget we have in the drawer in the laundry room.
If anything could help, this surely would do the job.
I went downstairs and got the gadget out of the drawer.
It is basically a magnet on an extendable pole.

I have used this many times when I dropped something behind the washer.
OK, let’s see what you’re made of, I said to the magnet on a pole as if it could hear me.
I went back upstairs, turned on the flashlight, and extended the pole.
I got down on my hands and knees.

I ran the extended pole all along the rug under my dresser.
It caught on to the cord of the baby monitor I have for my granddaughters.
I had to detach the metal plug from the magnet.
I pushed the monitor cord out of the way.

I tried again.
I thought my listening game might help me hear the earring back connect to the magnet.
I couldn’t hear a thing.
Small earring backs do not make a lot of noise when they attach to a magnet.

I looked again under the dresser, making a mental note to vacuum there in the near future.
I thought I saw something shiny.
I moved the magnet towards it.
I heard nothing; I didn’t even feel anything attach to the magnet.

I pulled the extending pole from under my dresser.
Sure enough, the tiny earring back was attached to the circular magnet.
I got up and immediately put the earring in my left ear and fastened it on the back.
Listening only got me so far this time; the rug muffled the sound.

Therefore consider carefully how you listen. (Luke 8:18)

The game I play is an important one.
It helps me find lost things.
It helps me pay attention.
Paying attention is important, particularly when God is speaking.

God is speaking to us through His Word.
Are we listening?
Are we allowing God’s Word to be muffled by the noisy din of the world?
Are we distracted and unable to pay attention?

Attention must be paid.
Practice it.
Learn to listen well.
If God is speaking (and He is) then nothing else matters but to listen to Him. (Michael Card)