I don’t recommend you do this (I do really, but maybe not when you are waiting in line to pay for your groceries).

I used to work for a newspaper. Not as a writer or undercover reporter or anything glamorous like that. I just laid out the pages and designed ads for local businesses. 

The press office was over the road from a supermarket, so lunch usually comprised of wandering across the street and a cheap sandwich. Amazing how routines play out day after day. 

My other routine is to chat with God as I go about my business. So much so, I sometimes do it without thinking.

Thing is, I forget that many (most) other people don’t share that routine. 

On this particular day I arrived back in the office, and Kate, one of my colleagues, said (in a friendly way, I think), “I used to think you were crazy, but now I know that you are.” 

Feigning hurt, I asked her why.

“I saw you stood in line at Asda (the name of the supermarket chain) talking to yourself.” 

Supposedly, the saying goes that talking to yourself is the first sign of insanity. At least that’s what the devil would like you to believe. It really depends what you are saying, I guess.

I corrected Kate of course, and told her that on this occasion I was not talking to myself, I was talking to God. I also informed her that talking to God is actually the first sign of…

Sanity.

Only God can make sense of life. Seriously, have you looked outside your window recently? Mad, mad, mad! If you are not driven to prayer and calling on a higher power for some sense and mercy maybe you are crazy!

I then asked Kate if she knew what the second sign of sanity is.

She said she didn’t, so in the most sage like manner I could muster I told her…

“The second sign of sanity is when God answers back!”

Funny story, right?

But dead serious. 

God is talking. 

As believers we “walk by faith”, “live by faith”, “please God by faith”.

And faith comes by hearing.

How many feel that way? Like life is a serious of concurrent accidentals?

You might agree in your head that God has a plan, but if you’re honest you really feel like you are stumbling in the dark and swinging your flashlight of hope in every direction hoping to catch a break.

Let me encourage you. God is standing in line with you at the supermarket. He is sitting next to you in your office or college. He’s there helping you wash the dishes, pick the kids up from school. He’s right next to you when you open the bills, rise in the morning, and lay down your head at night.

Deuteronomy 6:7 and 11:19 both speak of this ongoing conversation, generation to generation, and encourages believers to be engaged whenever they are sitting, standing or lying down. The encouragement covers pretty much all places, all times and all situations. Basically, all day every day!

Read these words carefully and slowly. Take note of the promised outcome of your conversation in heaven.

“Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates: That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth.”

Deuteronomy 11:18–21 KJV

Days of heaven upon earth. Mmmmm, I like the sound of that. I’ll take two please.

The word used for “words” here is the Hebrew word dabar. It means both “talk” and “action”. It’s a living, breathing conversation. Literally it should be translated “word-event”.

God’s words are happenings! 

If you want something to happen, you need one o’dem spirit words!

They are there for the taking. Ready and waiting. 

Maybe next time you are standing in line at Walmart you ought to display the first signs of sanity, open your mouth, and say “hi” to the one who is a Friend that sticks closer than a brother.

I haven’t seen Kate in years. I do hope she finally found her sanity and started talking to God.