Are you listening?
Psalms 95: 7-8
Today, if you would hear His voice, 8 Do not harden your hearts
I wonder how many times the God of heaven has spoken to me and I didn’t listen? Let me share two events that happened this past week.
In my job I service heating and air conditioning equipment on commercial buildings. Tuesday the last week of March, 2011 I was service=ing a large building, the temperature was close to ninety degrees and the roof was made of black tar, so it was hot up on roof of that building. As I finished I thought I am thirsty, I will go to the convenience store on the corner and get a bottle of Gatorade. As I walked into the store I saw a large array of soda fountain drinks on the back wall, so I thought, instead of a bottle of Gatorade, I will get one of those large cups of ice and soda.
When I walked to them display of drinks I found tat right beside that soda fountain was a clear plastic machine with an auger going round in it that was full of a green iceee and said Gatorade on the front of the machine. I thought wow! That will work, I’ll get a large cup of Gatorade iceee. I filled a large cup with the iceee and put a lid on the cup, stuck in a straw and walked to the check out counter. Setting the cup on the counter, I asked the lady behind the counter, “How much do I owe you?”
She looked at the cup and said, “One dollar and eighty nine cents.”
Taking my cup I walked out, got in my truck and started to drive away. Then I didn’t hear and audible voice but I heard God say, “You didn’t tell her that was Gatorade.”
I thought, what difference whether it’s Coke or Dr.Pepper it’s all the same they charge by the size of cup. Now as someone once said, Jesus can be kinda bossy. He repeated, “You need to go back and tell her that is Gatorade.”
This time I turned the truck around and drove back up in front of the store. Got out of the truck with the cup in my hand and walked in, the same young lady was behind the counter so I said, “Young lady, I don’t know I may owe you some more money, this is Gatorade I have in this cup.“
At that same moment a Blonde lady walked up to the counter and heard us talking. The lady behind the counter in formed me that I didn’t owe any more money, it was the same price, but thanked me for coming back to check. The lady customer said, “I am impressed that a man would drive back to check”
I said, “I had to because God told me to come back and make sure that she, pointing to the clerk, knew that this was Gatorade.”
The whole thing only took three minutes. There was no more conversation while I was in the store, I got back in my truck and continued on my way. I wondered what was that all about ? Did one of those ladies need to see that? Was it a test to see if I was listening? All I know, is I felt like singing the rest of the day.
Friday of the same week, I was on the roof of another building in a different city. This particular building had multiple units. As I always do before I climb down the ladder I walk one last time around the roof to make sure that I have gathered up all my tools. As I started to put my foot on the ladder, God said, “Check the electrical switches make sure that they are all left in the on position”.
Nothing can be more costly or embarrassing for a technician to drive off and have the customer call an hour later and say one of our units is not working, and then find that he forgot to turn it back on.
I walked to each unit and looked at the electric switch, they were all on. As I looked at the last one it too was in the on position, but it was not running, I bumped the switch handle with the heal of my hand and it moved about a half inch, the motor came on. Then I looked closer and I saw that the metal was slightly bent near the switch and it had hung, just short of the actual “On” position. I stopped right there and said a prayer of thanks to God for speaking to me again. I have never left a job feeling better than when I climbed down off that building.
I still don’t know why he instructed me to do the first one but I love the fact that he instructed me to check again the work I had done. My prayer is that I will be listening the next time Jesus wants to talk to me.
Tim on 
Roy Proctor on 
Rhoda Edwards on 