Can You Hear Me Now?

By Cindi Kirchner

"If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time--a tremendous whack."
- Sir Winston Churchill

Some days, I would like to have enough courage to take Sir Winston's advice. I find the point I just made to my boss seemingly floating away in thin air, never to be seen again. Other days, I can find refuge in Sir Winston and rationalize my behavior as I yell (polite way of putting it) at my 8 year old daughter for the third, or fourth, or fifth time, "Brush your TEETH!!" I think I've sort of given up though, on my husband, when I look in the metal utensil drawer in the kitchen and find plastic utensils. Putting them away in the plastic utensil drawer I then find metal utensils...

Then I sort of wonder, though. What are people trying to tell me that I just don't hear? What kind of pile drivers am I simply ignoring? Just yesterday, my husband complained, "You never have any time to spend with me." Or I hear, "Mommy, you never play a game with me." Ok, I get the message. Maybe I choose to not comply, but at least I heard the message.

Taking it one step further, what is it that God tries to tell us repeatedly that we just don't hear?

"Comfort, oh comfort my people," says your God. "Speak softly and tenderly to Jerusalem, but also make it very clear that she has served her sentence, that her sin is taken care of--forgiven!" Or, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!" Or, how many times did Jesus say "Love one another?" My search on Bible Gateway shows that between John, Peter, and Paul, there are 16 such references. Do you think he meant it?

My daughter and I have a little game between us. I tell her "I love you." She is then always quick to respond "I love you more!" Daddy of course tries to tell her that it's impossible, that she can never love us as much as we love her. I, on the other hand, don't try to dissuade her. I figure as pile drivers go, that one is as good as any.