by Julia Charleston

A few years ago, for no apparent reason, every single smoke alarm in my house started beeping. It began in the living room, and soon all six alarms were screaming at me that there was trouble. Searching the house I found no smoke, yet the alarms disagreed. Grabbing the ladder from the garage, I climbed up and down the wobbly rungs six times to disengage the alarms, only to discover they were hard wired.

I called my husband right away, and he instructed me to go out to the electrical box and shut things off until the alarms stop. One by one, I flipped switches, waiting for the alarms to be silent,  while holding the phone to my ear trying to listen to my husband’s instructions on what to do next. Communication was difficult, and we quickly became frustrated with each other. I continued to shut off the electricity to each connection. The phone went dead and suddenly, I was in complete darkness. The alarms still blared. I became very afraid. As I stood there in the dark, I began to cry.

How am I supposed to do this on my own and in the dark?

God warned the Israelites over and over. Jeremiah 6:10 states, “To whom can I give warning? Who will listen when I speak? Their ears are closed, and they cannot hear. They scorn the word of the Lord. They don’t want to listen at all.”

God lets us know when trouble is coming, but sometimes the world can be so distracting we cannot hear Him. He screams at us from all areas of our lives and we flippantly go about the details of our day without ever noticing; until it all goes black and we are left standing in the dark and all alone.

I stopped crying long enough to figure out that if I just opened the garage door and let the light in, I could continue flipping switches to shut down the alarms. Once I could see again, I finally hit the magic button.

Silence! What a beautiful sound.

God constantly sends warnings through scripture, through prayer, and through people in our lives. He reminds us to live in the world but not of the world. It is our job to recognize those warnings, and persevere through the darkness. It is our job to open the door to let the light in.

Heavenly Father, help us to listen when you speak. Help us open our ears to hear Your warnings and then remind us to open the door so that we may see you more clearly. ~Amen