NOISE

Working with a youth basketball league this year, I started paying extra attention to the actions of parents in the stands, coaches on the floor, and the children playing.  Most of the parents were into their own thing and would occasionally watch the game.  Some of them came to socialize, but a lot were seriously intense, too intense for third and fourth graders.  Some teams had coaches on both ends of the court yelling at the kids to do this or that.  One team with four coaches yelled play defense, find your man, shoot the ball, you can’t do this, stop doing that, foul ref, hey ref this, or hey ref that.  Four people screaming different things had to sound like noise to the children.  What do you want them to do coach?  If they do this, you scream that.  If they do that, you scream something else.  A coach for one team would slap the court hard with both hands while screaming at players and refs.  Some of the actions, words, and nonverbals were inappropriate.  The children are paying attention people; let’s set the example.  Geez!

It made me think that God probably gets tired of our nonsense sometimes.  Many of us say we’re going to change and stop doing this or that, but after a while, we’re back to our same ole selves.  A bunch of selfish, sinful, unforgiving, greedy, prideful, blame deflecting people.  Our worship, our prayers, our praise is all noise because our heart is on ourselves and not on Him.  In Matthew 15:8 we read, “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”  Everything we send up when our hearts are not on God, is NOISE!  The bible tells us, “As a face is reflected in water, so the heart reflects the real person.” (Proverbs 27:19)

Did we surrender our lives to Christ and ask God to change us?  The request must be from our heart, as we want to draw closer to our Lord.  Psalms 51:10 says, “Create in me a clean heart, O God.  Renew a loyal spirit within me.”  Do we really accept Jesus the Christ as Lord and Savior?  If the answer is yes, then our choices and actions must change.  We must choose to be more like Him.  Full of love which will bring out good fruit for the glory of God the Father.  Jeremiah 17:9-10, reads, “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked.  Who really knows how bad it is?  But I, the Lord, search all hearts and examine secret motives.  I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve.” 

We all get caught up and behave inappropriately at times.  But as much as possible, we need to be aware of and get rid of the noise; to act right, to be right, and reveal the change we asked God to perform in us.  Let’s live with the cleanliness of heart and the renewed loyal spirit the bible speaks of.  As God searches our heart, let Him find pleasure in our thoughts and motives, that we may receive just rewards shown by love to Him and from Him.