Donna was having the tires rotated and balanced. She sat outside enjoying the sunshine while she waited. What better way to kill time than to call her BFF, share some thoughts and shoot the breeze?When my phone rang, I paused from my house cleaning to sit a spell (as Nana would have said), so we could catch up with the last 24 hours of our lives.
What Happened?
After chit-chatting casually about current quarantine dilemmas and on-line school challenges and successes, she broke into another conversation. The topic was one that only besties would share. I listened intently as she unfolded the details. All of a sudden, I could not hear her. The call was not dropped. Clearly, she was there; I could hear noises in the background.
“Donna, can you hear me? Donna? What are those noises? Did you drop your phone?“ Maybe her phone broke. “Donna? Hello? Can you hear me?” This is weird; I hear male voices in the background. “Hello, where are you? Can you hear me now?” I laughed mocking the older Verizon commercial.
With no reply, I shrugged my shoulders and hung up. That was one of the weirdest phone call issues I have ever had. Where did she go? It wasn’t like the call dropped. Hmmmm. Hopefully, she’ll call back; she was just getting to the good stuff. Maybe I should try to call her back?
Don’t Call Back
As the familiar “you have a text message” ding came through, I read, “DON’T call back.” Now my mind was totally intrigued as I was left dangling wanting to know the rest of the story and why I couldn’t call back with a capital DON’T! What had happened with her phone?
Within 15 minutes, my phone rang. Neither of us could hardly get a word in as we tried to recall the events of the mishap. I snorted when Donna revealed, “Oh my gosh, Karla! Apparently when my car was cranked, my phone automatically connected to my car speaker. They guys in the shop were listening to our entire conversation!!”
“Wait, they just heard what we were talking about! Can they still hear us now? ”
“No, that is why I told you to wait so that I could disconnect it from the car.”
She continued with the story, as now we were safe from outside ears. However, it was not without hoots of laughter because we were continuously visualizing the mechanics’ faces as they were listening to the beginnings of our conversation.
God Hears Our Thoughts
When I got off the phone, I was still chuckling! I believe the truth that someone is always listening, but I don’t think it is usually mechanics. Rather, it is God. He hears everything we say; in fact, he hears everything we think!
Many of us grew up hearing, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” We tend to think that as long as we didn’t say it out loud, we did nothing wrong. But your thoughts are heard. Matthew 12: 25 “Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them… Luke 6:8 “But Jesus knew what they were thinking…” Matthew 9:4 “knowing their thoughts, Jesus said…”; these are just a few examples of Jesus’ all knowing power.
God knows everything about us.
Psalms 139:2- 3 (NIV) You know when I sit and when I rise; You perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.
I think God is not listening to be nosey. Rather, He listens because He cares.
Yes, we often remember to curb our words, realizing they should not be spoken, but God would love us to go one step further and be aware of our thoughts. So, that they will both honor God.