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To whom do you listen? For many, it is to gain the pulse of the majority, a concept captured by the Latin phrase “Vox populi” or “the voice of the people.” Starting around 1940, George Gallup began polling to find out the opinions and attitudes of people. It establishes a norm. In 1863, the people’s voice ridiculed a little speech. It was short, just 287 words. Some said the address was hard to understand and did not say anything. The speech was the Gettysburg Address. It stood the test of time and outlived all the critics. Imagine had Lincoln had listened to them. Would he have written one of the great masterpieces in oratorical history? We face the same problem. Moderns equate the truth to what most people believe. Today, the voice of the people wants to update God and his word. Through reinterpretation and mental sleight-of-hand, they change the terms of scripture to be palatable. It was the same way in the beginning. The Jewish leaders tried to silence the preaching of the cross, of which they were guilty. But Peter stood firm. “But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5:29, ESV) When we try to make truth palatable to others, when attraction and numbers replace conviction and truth, don’t listen to the vox populi. Stay with God. God will be your only friend, and that is enough. -Robert G. Taylor-

No other task is so under-appreciated and quickly passed over as motherhood. Even a mother who works outside of the home works her most important task is at home. Noses need wiping, and diapers require changing. A toddler peppering a woman with the staccato of “why” chews into sanity. Ask a mother how she is after being up with a sick child at night, and you will probably get a faint smile and a yawn-laced “I’m fine.” A mother does not raise a child to adulthood. She presents him to eternity—crafting in open laps and dirty cereal bowls. No one works harder at a task with more significant consequences. Even though man carved Mother’s Day into the second Sunday in May, it captured the heart of God, for you read of the Hannahs and the Marys, the easily forgotten bearers and shapers of life. So, today, we do more than applaud mothers and pin a corsage on a lapel. We stop and say, “thank you for giving to the Lord as well as your family.” Even if no one else knows what you do, the Lord does. -Robert G. Taylor-  

Dave Welding has a problem. He can only listen to one station. He has a Mazda that, for some reason, had the “connectivity master unit” fried. Now, his clock doesn’t work, his navigation system is dark, and his Bluetooth is becoming a faded memory. But the one that bothers him most is now he can only listen to Seattle station KUOW, a talk channel. He has no other options. Something happens when a life hears only one station, the one the world plays. It absorbs the negative, and the soul becomes cynical. Our society bombards us with alarming messages, from politics to war to finger-wagging protestors of all stripes. No wonder we have a world find with so much tension. Paul reminds us that the messages we hear constantly reshape our hearts. He instructs: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.” (Philippians 4:8–9) While the Mazda has no other choice, you and I do. Change the channel your soul listens to. You don’t have to keep listening to the junk. -Robert G. Taylor-