Treadmill – sheriyates.com

There’s a movie theater at the gym where I work out. When I first get in there, I can’t hear the movie because all I can hear is the voice in my head that says, “I don’t want to be here. I can’t do this. I’m out of shape. I’m too fat. I would rather be sleeping.” Then I hear my feet hitting the treadmill, then the sound of the treadmill belt. The sound of everyone else’s feet pounding increasingly distracts me. The beeping noises, the feet pounding, the treadmill belt—I can barely take it! The desire to punch someone out at the front desk if they do not turn up the volume is overwhelming. 🙂

But if I take my focus off of all of those things and put it on the movie and listen very hard, eventually the movie volume grows louder and louder. Before I know it, all I can hear is the movie. Actually, believe it or not, sometimes I forget I am in the cardio room!

When I’m really focused on the movie, it sounds loud and very clear. I forget about all my complaints. In our everyday lives, the busyness, texts, social media, TV, coworkers, children, and friends can all be very noisy. Discouragement, loss of a job, inability to have a baby—those things are really loud. Sometimes all we can hear is our own negative thinking, our hurt feelings, discouragement beating in our hearts, self-loathing.

BUT if we will just focus on listening for God’s voice, eventually it will be louder than all of the other things that are happening around us, inside of us, and to us. When we hear His voice above everything else, we can actually, believe it or not, sometimes forget we are in the middle of hurt and chaos!

There’s a movie theater at the gym that I work out at. When I first get in there, I can’t hear the movie because all I can hear is the voice in my head that says, “I don’t want to be here. I can’t do this. I’m out of shape. I’m too fat. I would rather be sleeping.” Then you just hear your feet hitting the treadmill, then the sound of the treadmill belt. The sound of everyone else in the rooms feet pounding increasingly distracts me. The beeping noises. The feet pounding. The treadmill belt – oh My! I can barely take it!!!!!! The desire to punch someone out at the front desk if they do not turn up the volume is overwhelming. 🙂

If you’ll take your focus off of all of those things and just put it on the movie and listen very hard, eventually, the movie volume—grows louder and louder. Before you know it, all I can hear is the movie. I actually – believe this or not, sometimes forget I am in the cardio room!

When I’m really focused on the movie, it sounds loud and very clear. I forget about all my complaints.

In our everyday lives, the busyness, texts, social media, the TV, co-workers, children, people—can be very noisy. Discouragement, loss of a job, not able to have a baby—it’s really loud. That’s all we can hear sometimes, our own negative thoughts, our hurt feelings, discouragement beating in your heart, self-loathing talk.

BUT! If we will just focus on listening for God’s voice for long enough, eventually it will be louder than all the other things that are happening around us, inside of us and to us. That’s when, all you and I can hear is HIM. We can actually – believe this or not, sometimes forget we are in the middle of hurt and chaos!