Adjust Your Antenna

As seen in the HEARTbeat and Village Voice

“Adjust Your Antenna”

            Think back.  How many of you stood outside, your hand on an aluminum pole, twisting it until someone from the inside yelled, “Stop!”  Yes, I too was part of that generation.  It was a time when you received the big three or four channels on your television.  If you wanted a station far off, it was time to adjust your antenna.

            Normally the process was not as simple as I stated above.  Most of the time I would bypass the “optimal” spot to which my mother or father or even a grandparent would yell, “Stop!  Go back the other way.”  I would reverse the twist, then reverse again, then reverse again until I would hear the prized words, “Stop right there!  Perfect!”

            Adjusting the antenna was the only way to receive the best signal possible.  In doing so you were able to remove all the interference and reduce the “snow” in the TV picture.  Clarity was the goal and the only way to achieve it was by adjusting the receiving antenna.

            This world has so much interference in it.  We are bombarded daily by negative printed news, negative TV news, negative radio news, and the list goes on.  It gets so bad on some days, I’m sure some of you do the same thing I do – turn it off!  It seems the only way to avoid it is to isolate your focus and turn your “antenna” to something more palatable, more pleasant.

            As Christians, we receive a lot of “worldly snow” in our lives.  What should concern us though is the “snow” is intentional!  Evil roams this world attempting to disrupt, delay, demean, and destroy our relationship with our Heavenly Father.  He knows we were created to have that relationship and Satan wants nothing more than to do as much damage as he possibly can to it.  If he can, he will diminish the impact we have on this world for the Kingdom’s sake.  But that’s not what God desires from us.

            The premise of adjusting your Christian antenna reminds me of a simple song written by Helen H. Lemmel in 1922 titled Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus, and the words go like this: “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”  The hymn is one and only one sentence, but it says it all.  In its simplicity it gives us the answer to reducing the distractions of this world thereby allowing us to receive the full “signal” from our Heavenly Father.

            Having trouble hearing God?  I propose the issue isn’t with the Sender, but with the receiver.  Turn your spiritual antenna in His direction.  You’ll hear the, “Stop right there!  Perfect!” in your heart, and then your reception will be clear.

            Adjust your antenna.  It’s just that simple.