Repetition

Focal Verse: "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me." (John 10:27)

In my six-year career since graduating college, my positions have always included marketing. From my first job as an advertising sales rep at the local newspaper to my current job in charge of online, email, and direct mail marketing, my aim has been knowing how to communicate a message to a particular audience.

One main premise in marketing is repetition. I learned in an advertising conference that it takes 3 direct mail messages for the recipient to engage. Even at the newspaper, businesses were encouraged to invest in repetition even if it meant smaller ads more frequently.

You can even see this in everyday life. How many times have you seen the first commercial for a new TV fall series and thought nothing of it, but the fourth or fifth time, your interest is piqued enough to watch the pilot episode? How many times have you decided to buy that new product only after seeing it advertised repetitively?

What I've noticed recently is that God is in the repetition business as well. It seems everywhere I turn recently, God has been showing me how he longs to speak to me. If you read my posts recently, you may be experiencing a little deja vu right now. But that's okay. If God cares enough to be repetitious with me to prove a point, I think it's okay for me to do the same with this blog.

One reason it has been several days since I've posted is because I have been struggling with something in particular. It is a personal issue for which I've been seeking God's direction. After several days and after getting even more desperate for an answer, I got on my knees and begged God to shine a light on my soul and show me if there were any offensive way in my thinking in regard to this issue (Psalm 139:23). I begged him to simply show me what direction he wanted me to go. Although he didn't speak right then, I trusted that he would in his time.

That night, I was reading in Ecclesiastes and a group of verses spoke to my heart. Although the author, Solomon, was talking about something completely different, God used these verses to speak directly to my situation. The particular verse that spoke to me was Ecclesiastes 8:6: "For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter, though a man's misery weighs heavily upon him." I was comforted that through this verse God was showing me that he understood my heart and what I was battling. Yet in the same verse, he spoke, telling me to wait on him, that there is a proper time for that in which I hope.

Through many of the circumstances about which I've written on this blog and others which I haven't, God has made his point to me. He desires to speak to us. He doesn't want the only message we hear from him to be the one from the pulpit. He wants to initiate a passionate relationship with us through one-on-one conversing. He wants to build his relationship with us. Through that relationship, he wants to comfort us in our sorrows. He wants to direct us in our life decisions. He wants to fill our deepest longings. He wants to show us his glory.

Yes, this blog may seem repetitive at the moment, but if you read through the book of Jeremiah for example, you'll see that God makes a point to be repetitive when he wants to speak to us.

I pray that we will continue to listen, because he is ready to speak.