Last Monday, we had to send our kids back to their college because of their housing arrangement and personal commitment to others. Our house is therefore quiet again after they are gone – normally we had a crowd of young people gathered, when they are around. As I looked back to my younger days, instant gathering is almost impossible for we need to call friends’ houses first and ask for permission from their parents. Nowadays, it is quite different. The younger generation all have their way of invitation through cell phones and computer. Impromptu invitations and gatherings become a norm – it is a social media era!

That day when we drove them back, in the car I saw they kept their heads down all the times on their cell phones. My wife couldn’t stand that and complained to them. Do you know what their answer is? “What? What?…” This makes my wife even agitated because she thought they were not paying attention to her. Sometimes I got the same feeling too – I have to raise my voice and repeat my question in order to get their attention. What a social-media addicted generation! I find that “technological convenience” promotes “bondage” and “aggravation” in this case.

As much as we don’t like people respond with “What? What?” to us, I don’t think God, who is our Heavenly Father, would like His children respond to Him with the same “What? What?” either when He speaks to them. In fact, this has been recorded in the Bible repeatedly throughout the history of Israelites. Even Israelites is called God’s chosen people, God is not always pleased with their response to His instruction, after He spoke to them through the prophets at many times and in various ways. No wonder Moses said, “You have been rebellious against the LORD ever since I have known you. 自從我認識你們以來、你們常常悖逆耶和華 (Deuteronomy 9:24)”

The question here is do we have the same rebellious attitude as the Israelites toward God? If yes, it certainly will hamper our growth in the Lord and quickly become a serious problem to our spiritual journey. What we can do is to come to our Lord everyday reflecting on our attitude toward Him. We can adjust our attitude through the help of the Holy Spirit. Hence, my dear brothers and sisters, my prayer to you is: may you listen to the whisper of the Spirit and become a child that is pleasing to Him.

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Disclaimer: The sharing is pure from my personal view; therefore, please don’t take it to be absolute. Thanks.