Moses answered, "What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, 'The LORD did not appear to you'?" – Exodus 4:1

 Today's Scripture Reading (September 21, 2021): Exodus 4

George Bernard Shaw famously quipped, "The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place." It is a problem that exposes itself in every area of our lives. The reality is that we often do the minimum and expect the maximum. We make an announcement or put up a sign and expect that everyone knows. One of my ever-present frustrations is that people get mad whenever their event doesn't get the support that they believed it should. But when I ask how they communicated the event with the people they hoped would come, they often respond that they placed the event on their Facebook news feed. My Facebook feed is inundated with important announcements, and I freely admit that I am not sure that I see ten percent of them.  Good communication takes more than a Facebook announcement. It usually takes more than any kind of broadcasted message (an invitation or information placed somewhere aimed at many people. A television advertisement is an excellent example of a broadcasted message). Good communication is often narrow casted and sometimes needs to be delivered in a one-on-one conversation with someone, which is time-consuming and takes many communicators to do effectively.

Every weekend, I speak a message that I think is important in front of a group of people. And every day, a message that I think is important is delivered in the form of this blog. Both are methods of broadcasting. And the truth is that I, like every other speaker or blogger, often wonders if anyone is really listening. Or is all of this just a waste of time. I have been asked what I believe the effectiveness of this blog might be, and my reply is that the most significant benefit of the blog is not what other people take from it but rather the change that the message creates inside of me. And maybe that is the best way to communicate; we start by first internalizing the message inside us. I don't know whether you hear me, but I know that I hear me, and the message that I write is often one I need to hear.

Moses asks the same question that most communicators ask; "What if no one listens to me? God, I know that you are giving me an important message, but I am afraid. I am a failure in their eyes. why would they listen to me?" It's a good question; I think everyone with a message to communicate asks that question at some point in their lives. Communication takes two people. It has always been that way, and it will always be that way. And we can do various things to increase the chance that we will be heard, but we can't do anything to force others to listen to us. They have to be willing to listen.

God's response to Moses would essentially be, "Moses, your responsibility is to speak the message that I am giving to you. The listening you will have to leave up to me." And God's message to us remains the same. We need to speak the message and leave the hearing up to God. Or, as Jesus might say, "Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear."

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Exodus 5