A Gentle Buzzing

As I write this, I am in a hotel room north of New Orleans grabbing a few hours of down time between ministry sessions.  My host church has put me up in a nice hotel where I can relax, think and write.  The first thing I do when I travel and enter an unfamiliar hotel room is pray over it.  After I pray, I began to unpack my suitcase. This has become my travel routine.

This time, when I opened my suitcase, I heard a faint buzzing sound.  I had no idea what was making the noise.  In Louisiana they have some really large insects and I thought maybe one of them got inside my luggage.  I began to pick through my things.  I looked in my shoes, under my clothing and then came to my toiletry bag.  The noise was coming from within this little bag.  When I opened it up there was the culprit – it was my battery-powered toothbrush.  Somehow in the course of travel the “on” button had been activated.  I turned it off, laughed, and finished unpacking. I could sense this was a reminder from the Lord of how He wanted speak to me during my time in Louisiana.

It was only when I arrived in the quiet of my hotel room, away from noisy airports and freeway travel, did I notice the sound. So much of our lives are like the noisy and fatiguing process of travel.  We live surrounded by the noise of life and rarely find those quiet moments when something gentle and barely discernible can be heard.  Today, stop and listen.  Get away from the noise of your life for just a moment.  In that pause you might hear a gentle buzzing in your life-luggage that will be a reminder to you that God is trying to get your attention.