What God has to say will save you

Moses said to the people: “If only you would heed the voice of the LORD, your God.” Our listening skills and abilities, like our lives, are full, flooded, active and busy, so overwhelmed and overconcentrated with so much noise. So many people, groups and individuals are vying for our undivided attention. So many voices are speaking at one time, saying so many different things. There are so many different video ads, virtual people to contend with, marketing scammers, seductive websites, porn and phishing messaging, additive gaming, fraudulent apps, email texting, explicit music and horrible lyrics – all shouting, screaming, yelling, “Look at me! Listen to me!” Making empty promises, worthless points, providing unnecessary opinions, poor judgements, little lies, false claims, useless information. Yelling, “Look at me! Pay attention only to me! Listen to us! Trust me! You can count on me! Only listen to me!” With so many voices speaking at one time, at such a fast and steady pace, who can determine what they’re saying, what they mean, who is really speaking and can we trust what is being said – so much information thrown at us, so much noise distracts us. How can we truly hear truth spoken and truly hear and listen to God say what we really need to hear? How can we know the path to follow? Where is the life chosen and given to you by God who only wills the truth and the greatest good for you? It is difficult to think a lie can make us feel good or better. It is unfortunate that there is so much deception in the world and people choose and want to deceive us. They lure us to them and away from the glorious freedom of being in a great, eternal, amazing and intimate relationship and friendship with God. The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola emphasize two main and distinctive voices that either inspire us to beauty, goodness and truth or tempt and lure us with evil desires prone to lies and things that are not good for us nor our family, coworkers or friends. Our voice and the voice of others is either inspired by the One or misled by the other. Either we hear and listen to truth like Jesus, Mary and Joseph, or we listen to lies, intentional deceptions, false advertisements and empty promises from the enemies of our human nature. Listen to God. What He has to say will save you.